The city has finalized selecting eight sites for drainage improvements funded through the American Rescue Plan Act.

Two other sites are listed as “additive alternatives.”

Although the city originally intended to focus ARPA drainage spending on Northside, the plan the council approved Tuesday includes sites on both Northside and Southside.

During a press conference Wednesday at City Hall, Vice Mayor and Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens credited the change to recommendations from Waggoner Engineering, the contracted firm overseeing the work.

“We followed their opinion on where it needed to go,” Mickens said. “When they started checking, … they saw that some of these areas were badder than some of the ones we had put down. So, when they pointed that out to us, we reworked some of the sites.”

Mickens led Tuesday’s council meeting and the Wednesday press conference in place of Mayor Keith Gaskin, who is suffering from an illness.

Waggoner conducted a video review of the city’s underground drainage system, starting in March. Jim Brigham, the city’s chief financial officer, said that revealed areas of crushed clay tile pipes on Southside.

Sites selected for drainage improvement work include: 18th Street North; 18th Street and 12th Avenue North; Seventh Avenue and 17th Street North; Bel Avenue; Fifth Avenue South; 15th Street and Seventh Avenue South; South Columbus Ditch; and 15th Street and Fourth Avenue North.

Waggoner estimates that work would cost about $4.56 million. That price is “right on plan,” Brigham said, and the engineering firm can now move forward with bidding the job to contractors.

The city has almost $6 million from ARPA and state match, as well as $190,000 in other federal funding earmarked for watershed work, Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett told The Dispatch.

Waggoner included two potential additional recommendations if the city’s budget allows: $1.25 million at 23rd Street North and $1.53 million on College Street.

“The hope is that the bids will come in lower than expected,” Garrett said. “Then either or both of the alternatives can be added.”

The city also accepted a grant in July from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to clean out and add concrete lining to an earthen ditch that runs down the east side of the Columbus Brick, as well as build a detention pond to catch water that now floods parts of 21st, 22nd and 23rd streets, and 23rd Avenue North. The grant will cover 75% of the costs for the almost $4 million project, with the city on the hook for just less than $1 million.

Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.

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