ALBEMARLE — At the Albemarle City Council meeting earlier this month, councilmembers were given a watershed master plan presentation where the continued development of a stormwater infrastructure inventory database for the city was discussed.
The city used multi-disciplined consulting firm WK Dickson to provide an assessment of the program at large.
On Jan. 6, Tom Murray, stormwater program manager with WK Dickson, told the council that the goals of the project were the development of the aforementioned database, maintenance priorities for aging infrastructure, the reduction of flood risk to the city, and the enactment of a capital improvement plan based on flood mitigation strategies.
The watershed plans formed over the past couple months — funded by Golden Leaf and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) — have been divided into two phases for the Little Long Creek Watershed Study.
Little Long Creek 1 extends from Salisbury Road to Morgan Street, while Little Long Creek 2 extends from Carter Road to North Second Street.
“The infrastructure inventory database is essentially a mapping of your stormwater infrastructure,” Murray said. “Before the onset of this project, there was really no defined database for where your stormwater assets are located and what is included within that system. As this infrastructure becomes 60, 70, 80 years old, we need to start looking at maintenance priorities to extend the life of that infrastructure.”
The stormwater inventory is made up of open channels and ditches, enclosed pipes and underground structures, as well as primary system streams and bridges.
Altogether, the Albemarle inventory presented by WK Dickson showed 1,591 structures, 19.1 miles of drainage pipe, 211 cross sections covering 9.4 miles of Little Long Creek and Melchor Branch, and 22.4 miles of tributary open channel stormwater ditches.
With the professional evaluation only covering 40% of the city, Murray said that he would soon be returning to present the council with more information.
He pinpointed riverine system improvements at the North Second Street and Holt Road culverts, stream stabilization at Little Long Creek, and floodplain benching at Hamilton Avenue as examples of where beneficial changes could be made.
“I think the first thing is to look at some of those maintenance priorities, and really look at that analysis to help you focus on those high criticality areas,” Murray added. “That will help complete some of those maintenance projects so that you don’t have to replace infrastructure.”
Regarding the total funding cost of an estimated $12 million, councilmembers agreed that they will continue to discuss which parts of the watershed master plan to focus on while WK Dickson completes the remainder of its city assessment.
The Albemarle City Council is set to meet again on Feb. 3 at 6:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers.