A project to lower the spillway of the dam and deepen and widen the channel of Steele Creek downstream from the Richfield Street Bridge is the initial project engineers are recommending to reduce flooding along Steele Creek.
Mark Carabetta, senior project manager, environmental science, with Milone & MacBroom Inc., New Paltz, presented three projects when he gave an update on the findings of a study during Wednesday’s special meeting of the Ilion village board.
Carabetta said MMI had studied 13 tributaries to the Mohawk River after the 2013 flood. The recent study took a closer look at Steele Creek and the flooding problems along Columbia Parkway.
Some houses were demolished under the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood buyout program, which would make it easier to widen the channel, he said.
Coordination between the Richfield Street bridge replacement project and the channel work will be necessary, according to Carabetta.
“Both have to happen for flood reduction to be realized,” he said.
The town of German Flatts was awarded $2.45 million last year to replace the steel deck bridge on Richfield Street and retained C&S Companies to handle the engineering and design phase of the project.
Construction is expected to take place in 2019.
Plans call for deepening and widening the channel and moving the bridge 20 feet to the east.
Copyright (c) 2018, Times Telegram