O F I DEAS
Extensive planning, team approach brings creative and
cost-effective solutions for flood control project
by Tawny Quast
R
esults of the City of Fort Collins’ recently completed $21.5 million
flood control and drainage improvement project will go largely
unnoticed by most residents. And that’s just fine with Owen Randall,
the City’s chief engineer for the project, because that means the project has
accomplished its goal.
“We won’t get compliments about controlling flooding,” Randall said.
“No one says a word because it all just goes away – it just works. They will
take it for granted. No one has any idea about what’s under the streets.”
What’s under the streets is 4,500 feet of concrete storm sewer pipes, which
at their largest are 102 inches in diameter. The massive project stretches
approximately 4,700 feet, required 250,000 cubic yards of excavation, and
includes five regional storm ponds. In all, the Canal Importation Ponds and
Outfall Drainage Improvements project (CIPO) provides flood mitigation
for approximately 175 homes and several roadways in an area immediately
upstream of Colorado State University in the heart of Fort Collins.
The City was well aware that the project area had ineffective storm
drainage because it had a history of flooding since development first began
in the 1960s. “(The area) was developed without a lick of storm drainage
criteria; it wasn’t designed with stormwater in mind,” explained Matt Fater,
the City’s project manager. In fact, Fater recalled college students kayaking
down City streets after a significant flood in 1997.
Flooding stemmed from insufficient detention and storm sewer
inlets and pipes that were undersized for the increased storm flows in the
increasingly urbanized area. Stormwater pooled in three irrigation ditches,
which overflowed because they were not capable of handling storm flows.
Any solution became difficult because of limited space and the effects on
surrounding homes and property.
TRENDS
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