Consultants Get Ball Rolling on Flood Mitigation Possibilities

A pair of consultants told residents at the Port-of-Burlington last(Tues) night that it’ll take a whole package of plans by the City…with their help…to get a multi-million dollar grant from the Iowa Flood Mitigation Fund.

 

City Manager Jim Ferneau seemed to want to remind everyone of the most important aspects of any potential plan — keeping the lift station, Memorial Auditorium, the sewer plant, the Amtrak depot and the Port of Burlington dry.

Burlington is looking for major help with downtown riverfront flooding and Leo Foley of Veenstra & Kimm and Ed Freer of SmithGroupJJR say it’s going to take a combination of prevention and drainage measures, including possible temporary or permanent flood walls…more permeable surfaces, including…potentially…the Memorial Auditorium parking lot, part of which was shown as a big splash pad in one concept drawing…and more water treatment options, including small wetland areas.

Veenstra & Kimm…SmithGroup…and Stanley Consultants, the firm that’ll write the grant application…will need to get their work done within weeks.