Chicago Housing Authority
Rockwell Gardens Redevelopment

The CHA Plan for Transformation is the most ambitious redevelopment plan for public housing in the United States, involving the redevelopment of 25,000 units and homes to more than 50,000 families. Now in its 14th year, the plan calls for high rise to low rise development.

The Project Site, Rockwell Gardens is a 2.5-acre Site consisting of 22 non-contiguous parcels that will be developed as rental properties.

The scope of work included development and revision of remediation plans, soil management plans and remediation oversight. We conducted the following tasks:

• Evaluated recent changes to the Illinois Site Remediation Program (SRP)
• Conducted volume calculations to estimate volume of soil remediation
• Conducted Remedial Oversight activities
• Prepared the RACRs
• Prepared a Soil Management Plan
• Provide general consulting such as coordination with HUD, development team members; Illinois EPA

We conducted management and oversight for:

• Soil excavated for building foundations
• Soil transported as special waste to CID
• Soil reused where possible under a Soils Management Plan
• “Engineered Barriers” placed over contaminated soil left in place
• Engineered Barriers include the building, parking lots, sidewalks and landscaping

We secured NFRs under the Illinois Site Remediation Program (SRP).

Key Solutions

• Provided flexible schedules (weekends, non-business hours)
• Conducted fast-track reporting
• Provided consulting services as needed for environmental issues that arose during the project: USTs, leaking buried pipes; releases encountered during construction, brownfield, and regulatory support (IEPA, MWRDGC, City of Chicago, Office of the State Fire Marshall)
• Coordinated stakeholders to address schedule and other deviations quickly and efficiently

Additional Solutions

• Ongoing meetings and negotiations with the CHA and CHA’s developer and Illinois EPA regarding clean up objectives and approvals of remediation plans
• The project team acted as agent for CHA, and signed manifests for special waste removal and offsite disposal.

Client Benefits

• CHA received an NFR and the site is redeveloped with new rental units, permeable pavers and engineered barriers