Leveraging Municipal Employees and Resources to Restore Streams and Mitigate Flood Hazards in the Happy Valley Watershed, Radcliff, Kentucky
Neal Crawford, PE
Qk4, Inc.
Louisville, Kentucky
Bradley M. Anderson, PE, CPESC, LEED AP,
RES
Louisville, Kentucky
Authors: Neal Crawford, PE – Qk4, Inc. and Blair Borries – Redwing Ecological Services, Inc.
The Happy Valley Watershed in Radcliff, Kentucky experienced frequent structural and roadway flooding during heavy rain events since rapid growth of the city began in the 1930s. The City is located within a karst valley that drains to the Quiggins Sinkhole. Flooding would persist for days, resulting in inundation of 54 structures and two critical transportation arteries. The outlet conveyance capacity of the Quiggins Sinkhole is limited by the size of its swallow hole outlet; therefore, possible solutions were limited to enlarging ponding/storage areas along stream valleys draining to the Quiggins Sinkhole. The project design focused on naturalized flood control basins with restored streams meandering through them. Overall, the project required 270,000 cubic yards of excavation and resulted in the restoration of 7,241 feet of stream and 14.5 acres of riparian area. Despite having an annual city-wide revenue of only $14 million, the City was able to undertake the solutions with help from a FEMA grant that provided $5,094,143 in funding support and through the utilization of innovative implementation techniques that utilized City employees and resources. City stormwater employees received Mine Safety Hazard Training (MSHA) that allowed them to select and transport boulder materials from a nearby quarry; utilized survey-grade GPS layout equipment; and received training on specialized stream restoration techniques which enabled them to construct 2,418 feet of the restored streams at a greatly reduced cost compared to streams restored by outside contractors. Additionally, the City stormwater employees partnered with the City police department to purchase military surplus construction equipment and obtained special permits that allowed them to transport the stream restoration materials and excavated materials on state highways with articulated trucks escorted by police vehicles. The innovative implementation techniques saved the City well over $1,000,000 and provided essential non-federal cost-sharing for the FEMA grant through in-kind services at much less cost to the City than a cash match.
About Neal Crawford, PE
Neal Crawford is a professional engineer and project manager at Qk4 Inc. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and a Master’s focusing on water resources, both from the University of Louisville. Neal holds a P.E. license in 10 states and has spent his career providing water and wastewater municipalities, as well as private developers, with a wide variety of professional design services. Neal is the current Louisville Chapter KSPE President and was a member of the 2013 class of Leadership PE. The Louisville Chapter awarded Neal with its Young Engineer of the Year Award in 2018. Neal is happily married to his beautiful wife, Allison, with two “Irish Twin” boys, Owen (10) and Ethan (9). Neal likes to spend his free time at Rough River or at UL sporting events.
About Bradley M. Anderson, PE, CPESC, LEED AP
Brad is an Engineering Manager at Resources Environmental Solutions (RES), formerly Redwing Ecological Services. He has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering with an emphasis on Environmental Engineering from Purdue University. Brad joined Redwing in 2006 to develop an engineering group with the group’s primary focus being stream and wetland restoration and mitigation design, hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, and stormwater management. Brad’s experience includes design and management of over 67 stream mitigation/restoration design projects in Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee, totaling more than 253,000 linear feet of stream channel, of which over 93,000 feet have been successfully constructed. He is happily married to his wife, Jennifer, and has three children. Outside of the office, Brad enjoys being outdoors and watching Purdue basketball and football.