Far Westside Flooding Project Earns Major Federal Funding
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Major flooding prevention improvements will be coming to Madison’s far west side as early as summer 2024 to provide protection to an area devastated by the 2018 floods. The proposed Pheasant Branch Tributary Greenway Enhancement project, located in the Old Sauk Trails Business Park between Deming Way and Excelsior Drive, is an infrastructure improvement project designed to mitigate flood risks through improved capacity of the existing greenways and ponds.
“Flood mitigation work is vital to our community on so many levels. This funding proves the work we’ve been doing with our Watershed Studies and flood modeling efforts means major improvements for our community for years to come,” City of Madison Engineering Division Stormwater Principal Engineer Janet Schmidt said. “The work we’ve done for the Pheasant Branch Tributary Greenway Enhancement project has required a lot of data, design and understanding of our regional impacts to extreme weather events. We are thankful to partner with FEMA and WEM to make meaningful improvements to reduce flood risk and future potential damages.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarded the City of Madison $6 million through the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program. The BRIC grant will cover 70-percent of eligible project costs, which are estimated to be $8.6 million.
“This Greenway Enhancement project is exactly the type of mitigation work FEMA’s BRIC grant program was created to support,” said FEMA Region 5 Regional Administrator Tom Sivak. “We’re proud to be working closely with our state and local partners to invest in innovative solutions that will protect Madison residents and reduce the risk of costly flood damage in the future.”
Wisconsin Emergency Management (WEM) helped the City of Madison obtain the BRIC Grant through its hazard mitigation section.
“This City of Madison project helps build flood resiliency in the community,” said WEM Administrator Greg Engle. “The 2018 floods devastated many communities across the state, and projects like this one highlight how mitigation efforts can reduce flood impacts while enhancing the natural environment.”
The Pheasant Branch Tributary Greenway Enhancement project showcases how the City of Madison has been able to utilize the flood models developed in the citywide watershed study effort to bring conceptual solutions to fruition with the help of federal funding for resiliency projects.
The basic components of the project consist of the following:
- Improvements to capacity and flood storage of more than 2,000 feet of greenway channels.
- Enhancements to storm water ponds.
- Improvements to concrete culverts in greenway crossing locations to reduce flooding to surrounding streets and buildings.
- Improvements to storm sewer to mitigate street and building flooding, while also conveying runoff into the greenway system.
- Replanting and restoring areas with native vegetation, including wetland species around the ponds and channel bottoms areas, and prairie species and trees in upland areas.
The project area will more specifically benefit in the following ways:
- Approximately seven buildings with existing first-floor structure flooding would be removed from the 1% annual chance flood impact by this project
- 17 total structures benefit from lowered flood elevations for improved access and potential damages (e.g. removal or reduction of flooding of surface parking lots, improved ingress/egress to buildings).
- Reduced or eliminated street flooding to improve safe access to motor vehicles, pedestrians/bikers, and buses.
- Reduced or eliminated economic impacts that will help keep businesses undamaged, which will allow them to remain open to the public and keep employees working.
FEMA Featured the City of Madison Engineering Division’s work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5peMmiHhfg
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