Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Stormwater Flood Mitigation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission approves $2.5 million PROTECT-funded design contract for Arcadia Creek flood relief
Summary
The Kalamazoo City Commission approved a $2.5 million contract with Hurley & Stewart to design three phases of Arcadia Creek improvements, funded by a federal PROTECT grant. Staff said the work will modernize undersized culverts and reopen Academy Street as part of flood-mitigation efforts.
The Kalamazoo City Commission voted unanimously on Dec. 1 to approve a $2.5 million contract with Hurley & Stewart for design work on Arcadia Creek, from Kalamazoo Avenue west to Oliver, funded entirely through a federal PROTECT grant.
City engineering staff told the Commission the project will resize and modernize a portion of Arcadia Creek whose existing channel is “approximately 12 times too small” to carry modern flood flows. Director Baker said the work is intended to convey flood flows, reduce repeated flooding in the West Main and Stewart neighborhoods and reopen Academy Street, currently closed due to a failing culvert.
“Arcadia Creek has been modernized in places since the early 1990s, but this cross section under Allen Platt is undersized and cannot convey flood flows,” Director Baker said, describing a long-standing plan to extend earlier improvements westward. He said the phase-0 work completed previously was enabled in part by about $7 million contributed by a private arena development, but he emphasized the commission’s decision funds the city’s PROTECT grant design work and that the private arena is not being funded by the city.
Residents who spoke during public comment praised the flood-mitigation and ecological goals but also expressed concerns about potential secondary effects, including construction impacts on nearby unhoused residents and the long-term neighborhood effects of adjacent private development. Dr. Hale Stevens, a Stewart neighborhood homeowner, told the Commission: “It floods in front of my house on Elm Street every time we have a major downpour.”
Staff said the PROTECT grant will fund the design phases and that construction will follow additional design, permitting and funding steps. The motion to approve the contract passed by roll call vote with all commissioners voting yes.
The design contract authorizes engineering and permitting work; the timing and cost of subsequent construction phases will depend on later funding awards and final design decisions.
