Brunswick reviews NOAA-funded West Brunswick resilience design, including tide gates and pipe upsizing

Brunswick city officials on Tuesday reviewed a design project funded through a Coastal Incentive Grant (NOAA funds administered through the Georgia Department of Natural Resources) to address tidal inundation, stream erosion and undersized storm drains in West Brunswick.

Director Albert introduced the project and turned the presentation over to Ben Pierce of GES, who said the grant covers design work — not construction — and aims to "identify design and permit solutions that address stream erosion, upstream capacity and tide control." Pierce said priority sites include outfalls at M/L Street, House Street (on Georgia Ports Authority property), the Greenwood/Cemetery outfall near Ross Road and upstream sections along Monk, Union and Prince streets.

The nut of the plan is a mix of tide-control devices and upstream capacity improvements. Pierce described two primary tide-control approaches: exterior ‘‘duck-bill’’/exterior check valves that sit at outfalls and allow discharge while limiting tidal inflow, and interior/inline check valves installed inside pipes or junctions. He said exterior valves permit discharge even when tides are high, while inline valves are less visible but can be more vulnerable to sediment and debris accumulation.

Pierce also outlined bank-stabilization and living-shoreline options and said some upstream storm lines are undersized — "somewhere in the realm of an 18, in some 15-inch piping" — and would be replaced or upsized (to 24–36 inches in critical reaches) as part of the design recommendations.

On maintenance and operations, Pierce told the commission routine inspection and cleaning will be required: "we tried to go out and clean tide gates in specific where we knew that the tide was going to be susceptible…twice a year, twice a year." He added city staff will be responsible for regular inspections and noted permitting coordination is underway with Georgia DNR and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Project milestones include completion of permitting and final design this fall into the early fall permitting window, delivery of design drawings and public outreach events. Pierce said the design work began in mid-2022 and the team expects to move through permitting and community education into final design during the next several months.

The commission asked technical questions about debris handling, valve failure modes and long-term maintenance responsibilities; staff confirmed that the grant is design-only and that construction funding would be a separate future step.

The next steps are completing permit applications and continued public education; staff said they will return with finalized permit materials and outreach plans.