State requests aid for flooding study

Web posted August 1, 2000

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By Heidi Coryell
Staff Writer

State transportation commissioners have asked the federal government to get involved in a local interchange project to fix flooding problems on Interstate 20 and prevent future flooding problems caused by new construction.

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The Federal Highway Administration should receive a letter this week from state transportation commissioners requesting money to pay for a hydraulic study and analysis concerning improvements to the I-20/520 interchange. The $56 million project is set to begin construction in 2004.

``What we're doing is expanding the scope of the original study,'' said Harold Linnenkohl, deputy commissioner for the Department of Transportation. ``We are in the process of asking the federal highway administration to help us do that.''

A letter, signed Monday evening by Transportation Commissioner Tom Coleman, likely will be sent out today asking the Federal Highway Administration to help pay for an expanded engineering study that would include recommendations on how to pre-empt flooding as a result of the interchange project, in addition to how to fix existing flooding on I-20, which is a federal evacuation route.

The state's funding request also asks for money to study the feasibility of a detention pond for Crane Creek. A detention pond holds runoff and allows controlled release.

State Sen. Don Cheeks and 10th Congressional District Transportation Board Representative Jimmy Lester have been spearheading efforts toward federal involvement since heavy rains June 20 caused flooding throughout the city, including in west Augusta's Commonwealth subdivision. The neighborhood is adjacent to a culvert on I-20 that has backed up three times in the past decade as a result of heavy rains.

``In my opinion, it's absolutely essential that the federal highway and state highway administrations find a way to eliminate the problem,'' Mr. Cheeks said. ``I have suggested a retention pond would be the simplest and easiest way. They haven't said they agreed with me yet.''

Officials have not released estimates of how much it would cost to expand the study to include hydrology and hydraulic analysis. Local engineers have said studying the viability of a detention pond on the Crane Creek basin would cost about $50,000.

State transportation officials hope to hear back from federal highway administrators in the next few weeks with the goal of securing some type of recommendation on the project in the next couple of months, Mr. Linnenkohl said.

The state's request also asks federal highway administrators to work with the Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency in an effort to remedy, and pay for, improvements to the highway.

Reach Heidi Coryell at (706) 823-3215.