City of Aurora – Lake Run Habitat Restoration / Aurora West Forest Preserve

Aug 18, 2017

Trotter and Associates, Inc. (TAI) was retained by the Kane County Department of Building and Environmental Management to plan, design, and oversee construction of a large scale restoration project in the Blackberry Creek Watershed. Lake Run, a tributary to Blackberry Creek, featured a channelized, severely eroded stream corridor, and was dominated completely with both non-native and invasive tree species. The historically channelized stream had near-vertical bank heights of 4 to 8 feet, and in some locations in excess of 18 feet.

The goal of the project was to enhance and restore the biodiversity, as well as the ecological conditions of the stream corridor/farmed wetlands. The project included the construction/restoration of more than 40 acres of wetlands, 10 acres of prairie, and 3,600 feet of severely degraded stream channel. TAI prepared an earthwork analysis, hydraulic modeling of floodplain impacts, stream channel dynamics, applied for regulatory permitting, provided plant/seed selection, sediment & erosion control plans (SWPPP), construction drawings and specifications during the design phase. The TAI project team also provided construction observation throughout the implementation phase of the project.

In addition, TAI assisted the County with acquisition of grant funding from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Section 319 Program to help offset the capital costs to Kane County. Survey work for this project was also completed by TAI.

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