Decades ago, the powers that be in Chicago and the state of Illinois decided they would undertake the “most expensive and extensive” engineering project of all time: The Tunnel and Reservoir Project (TARP) that would “end flooding in the Chicago area once and for all.”
For 20 years or more, those huge earth-and-rock boring machines moved beneath the city and outlying suburbs, creating gigantic tunnels in the bedrock, and huge underground reservoirs designed to hold untold billions of gallons of storm water.
The TARP came into play during the famous Chicago Loop flood of 1992, when the Chicago River invaded the basement of Loop skyscrapers via a hole in the long-neglected freight tunnel system under the city. The basements were pumped out into the TARP.
But that’s about the last we heard of it. Now, with monster storms drenching the shit out of us with 100-year-floods every 6 months or so, what the hell happened?
I heard just the other day “The Deep Tunnel is full.” on a local newscast, but they gave no details. If the Deep Tunnel was full, does that mean it worked or it didn’t?
I mean, I know it must have absorbed billions of gallons of runoff, but did it ameliorate the flooding the Chicago area used to suffer?
The Des Plaines and other rivers still overtop their banks, and streets and viaducts still become impassable, but would it have been worse?
Think yea that the contractors and engineers and politicians who foisted the TARP on us in the first place would be crowing about how great it’s working and pat-us-on-the-back if it actually was worth the billions spent?