State officials hope that a recently completed project that protects the only undeveloped Lake Michigan shoreline in Illinois will draw visitors – and endangered species – to the Lake County nature area.
The Illinois Beach State Park in Zion on the state’s northern border contains about 10% of Illinois’ Lake Michigan shoreline, or 6.5 miles. Lawmakers dedicated $73 million to the project from the state’s capital infrastructure plan to protect the shoreline from erosion, which can claim up to 100 feet of shoreline annually.
“The erosion threatened the unique landscape habitat beyond the beach that makes this one specific place in the world so ecologically special,” Illinois Department of National Resources Director Natalie Phelps Finnie said at a news conference celebrating the project’s completion. “As the beach and shoreline diminished, so did the visitors and tourists who once flocked to this location in the summers.”
Gov. JB Pritzker said because of the erosion at the park, “there was a very real possibility that we could lose it forever.”
Read more: State spends $73 million to protect Illinois’ only undeveloped Lake Michigan shoreline
The project included creating 22 breakwater structures to limit the wave energy that causes the erosion. Its aim is to maintain the beach for human use while creating and protecting habitats for endangered species. It included 35,000 truckloads of sand to restore the shoreline, 4,000 tons of cobblestone, and other materials.
Some of the structures will have built-in nests for migratory birds, including the endangered piping plover and common tern. Under the lake’s surface, reclaimed concrete blocks from the site and native plants will be used to foster aqua gardens and create habitat spaces for species such as mudpuppies and yellow perch.
Phelps Finnie said she expects the completion of the project to increase the number of visitors to the site as well.
Construction at Illinois Beach began in 2023, and earlier this year the stabilization plan received recognition from New York-based water infrastructure advocacy group The Waterfront Alliance. Illinois Beach State Park is the first freshwater project and first in the Midwest to receive verification under the organization’s Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines.
Its funding source is the state’s Rebuild Illinois capital program, a $45 billion six-year infrastructure plan originally approved by the General Assembly in 2019. Contractor Michels Construction collaborated with the landscape architecture firm Living Habitats to complete the project.
Pritzker also noted Monday the project earned the 2024 “Best Restored Beach Award” through the American Shore and Beach preservation Association.
“I’m a competitive sort so the idea that we did a project here that has been recognized throughout the United States as the best, I think that’s something we should all be proud of,” Pritzker said.
The new breakwater structures at Illinois Beach State Park will create habitats for native species including tern nests and aquatic gardens. (Graphic courtesy of the Waterfront Alliance’s WEDG Verified Project Case Study.)
Stateville Correctional Center
Pritzker also said at the Monday news conference that the state has complied with a judge’s order to move residents out of Stateville Correctional Center.
The state began moving individuals out of the century-old prison a little more than a month ago after a federal judge in August put a Sept. 30 deadline for relocating residents. That was the result of a lawsuit against the state that accused it of failing to maintain Stateville, leading to dangerous and unsanitary conditions and rendering it uninhabitable.
Read more: Judge orders prison officials to relocate Stateville population by Sept. 30 | Stateville may close as early as September under Pritzker’s prison plan
A 2023 state-commissioned report identified Stateville, located in Crest Hill outside of Joliet, and Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln as among a handful of prisons with unlivable conditions caused by years of deferred maintenance by the state.
Pritzker said about 24 individuals remain in the prison’s medical facility – the judicial order did not apply to those housed in that ward.
The state budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 included $900 million for the plan to close and rebuild Stateville and Logan.
While an oversight panel in June declined to vote on the administration’s plan to close and rebuild the facilities citing lack of details, Pritzker on Monday didn’t offer any details beyond what the state already shared when asked about the prison plan.
Read more: Lawmakers pass on oversight vote for Pritzker’s prison closure, rebuild plan
“We’ve asked experts about how long it would take. Remember, you’ve got to tear down an existing building as well as build on the property. So they’ve said three-to-five years,” he said.
Pritzker’s plans to demolish and rebuild Stateville and Logan are hotly contested by AFSCME Council 31, the state’s largest public employee union, which represents most prison workers in Illinois.
While the state plans to rebuild a prison on the site of Stateville, it’s not clear if Logan will be rebuilt in Lincoln or moved north to also be built at the Stateville site.
Editor’s note: Reporters Cole Longcor and Hannah Meisel contributed reporting to this story.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
