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Steele Creek Restoration and Flood Mitigation Project

Matthew Trueheart
Miguel Castellanos, EIT
SLR Consulting
New Paltz, New York

Authors:  Matthew Trueheart, MS and Miguel Castellanos, EIT

The Steele Creek Restoration and Flood Mitigation Project in the village of Ilion, New York was a complex, multifaceted project.  The primary purpose was to mitigate chronic flooding problems along Steele Creek, a tributary to the Mohawk River, which had been reported for over a century and escalated as the village grew and development increasingly encroached on the creek’s floodplain.  Following severe flooding in June 2013, SLR evaluated and identified scenarios for reducing flooding along Steele Creek. SLR then developed detailed engineering design plans for construction of the Project. Design components included the removal of a 13-foot high dam; removal of sediments that had accumulated behind the dam and restoration of the channel bed; removal of flood-prone homes and roadways along the creek; widening of the Steele Creek channel and creation of floodplain; replacement of a hydraulically undersized bridge and retrofitting a second bridge; installation of in-stream habitat features; multiple utility relocations and construction of a wastewater pump station. The stable channel analytical method was employed to determine equilibrium channel geometry through the project reach. Peak design flows were increased in hydraulic analyses to account for climate change and the effect of extreme weather events. SLR applied for and received all required regulatory permits, assisted the village with bidding of the project, and provided construction administration for the duration of the project over the 2020 and 2021 construction seasons. The project has substantially reduced flood hazards in the village, with hydraulic modeling indicating that more than 100 homes were removed from Steele Creek’s 100-year floodplain, and has been viewed very favorably by the community. Riffles, rock vanes, pools, and boulder clusters were added to the channel to provide grade control, roughness, and in-stream habitat features where the channel had previously been very uniform and lacked aquatic diversity. The streambanks and floodplains were planted with native riparian species. With the removal of the dam, fish and other aquatic organism passage was restored. The Steele Creek Restoration and Flood Mitigation Project received the 2023 Diamond Engineering Excellence Award, Water Resources Category, from the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York.