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UAB Engineering Students Help Center Point Flooding

Is flooding a problem for your home in Center Point?   The community is invited to attend a meeting featuring the UAB Senior Engineering Students proposals for stormwater solutions in Center Point. April 27 6:30 pm at Center Point City Hall

Here is the process the students used to evaluate flooding near Polly Reed Road and Mary Vann Lane.
Problem: Retrofitting Urban Stormwater Using Low Impact Design (LID)
Project Location: Center Point north of Reed-Harvey Park. Center Point is one of 10 partners in the Five Mile Creek Greenway Partnership.  Our goal is to connect 7 municipalities with walking trails, bicycle trails and water trails.  Center Point is the headwaters of Five Mile Creek.  The city has completed a master plan for the Reed Harvey Community Greenway designed by Gresham Smith and Partners.  The Greenway plan connects Center Point Ball Park southwest to the border of Center Point and City of Birmingham.  Much of the walking trail is along Five Mile Creek. Flooding occurs when the ditches leading to the creek overtop the banks during rain storms.  This causes damage to local roads including Polly Reed Road and Mary Vann Lane.  The costs of repairing eroding stormwater ditches adjacent to Polly Reed Road is estimated over 1 million.  In an effort to change the speed and volume of stormwater delivery to these ditches, Cawaco RC&D Council has proposed using Low Impact Design techniques such as low-cost bioswales.  These will be integrated into the construction of the Greenway trail as a landscape features.

Scope Students will complete the following investigation:

  • Description of site, discussion of possible LID solutions : Soil permeability and infiltration capacity, topography, geology
  • Hydrologic simulation model for each site : Calculate volume and velocity for a 10– year storm
  • Design of LID solution including sizing of bioswales. Given the amount of rainfall, volume and speed of runoff into current ditches, what size (acres, holding capacity) would detention basins or bioswales need to be to perform safety and effectively.
  • Evaluation of the current Greenway trail location:Compare existing trail location design with scenarios for integrated stormwater and trail design. Suggest alternatives to serve trail use and stormwater.
  • Evaluation of roads and bridges in the floodway of the area : Evaluate the effect of existing stormwater on safety and stability of roads and bridges – specifically Mary Vann Lane and Polly Reed Road
  • Cost evaluation of conventional construction costs vs LID  Concrete piping of stormwater on Mary Vann Lane and Polly Reed Road vs bioswales for detaining surface flows.