Milwaukee is spending $100 million on a metropolitan flood-control project, hoping to avoid future flood damages that have cost that much since 1997. The centerpiece of the plan is a 17-ft-diameter, half-mile-long tunnel that will drain up to 3,405 cu ft per second of water from a flood-prone creek into a 315-million-gallon detention basin.
When heavy rain causes nearby Underwood Creek to overflow, the new tunnel will drain the excess water to a 65-acre engineered detention basin that will slowly release the collected stormwater into the Menomonee River.