In 2011, the City of Chicago moved forward with a project to create a drainage channel to eliminate surface water quickly and efficiently from the O’Hare Airport. The product selected for the retaining walls along the channel was the Recon Block, supplied by Service Konstruction Supply.

The channel required 56,000 linear feed of wall, averaging 10’ in height. The customer specified a mechanically stabilized system, and thus Recon utilized its 24″ deep block combined with Strata geogrids. The wall had to accommodate “rapid drawdown” events. The combination of the free draining stone placed behind the wall and the ability for water to drain through the face of a Recon Wall met the design criteria.