Manhard provided civil, stormwater engineering, and permitting services to the client. Being the first permit submittal that DuPage County processed for solar panel installations, a significant amount of coordination was required with the reviewing agencies.
The proposed panel installation will be constructed on a little used area of the property, located adjacent to critical wetlands. Furthermore, a portion of the installation is located in a floodplain and riparian buffer area. DuPage County determined that they will require detention for solar panel installations. As such, significant design and coordination was required for this installation to be viable. Ultimately, Manhard facilitated a variance to be considered for providing detention onsite, as the cost to construct the required detention facility was prohibitive. In addition, the location had been a former environmental contamination site, further limiting the potential to remove dirt from the site to provide detention.
The project is currently in the permitting phase, and will be constructed in Fall of 2020, and, once constructed, will be the first solar panel installation (not constructed on the roof of a building) to be located in the County.