Flash flood-prone Sun Valley Neighborhood could have new protection berm in place in 2011

CEDAR RAPIDS - The City Council is slated this evening to approve spending $120,000 to conduct a water-flow study of Indian Creek at, above and below the flash flood-prone Sun Valley Neighborhood off Cottage Grove Avenue SE.

The funds also will be used to design a flood-protection system for the neighborhood, a system now planned to be built in 2011, reports Dave Scanlan, the city's storm water management project engineer.

Anderson-Bogert Engineers & Surveyors Inc. will conduct the study, expected to be completed this fall.

Scanlan said the study will provide data so that the new flood-protection system s built in a way that does not adversely affect properties along Indian Creek above or below the Sun Valley Neighborhood.

He put the cost of building the system at between $400,000 and $600,000. The system will feature a berm, likely ranging from a couple feet to six feet in height, and possibly a wall in places, Scanlan said. The project also calls for the installation of new storm sewers in places and the modification of storm sewers at other spots.

The city hopes to secure state I-JOBS funds to pay for some of the work. Otherwise, the city expects to use local funds.

In his memorandum to the City Council, Scanlan notes that the Sun Valley Neighborhood has endured three floods in the last eight years. The most serious episode came in June 2002, after which neighbors hired their own expert at one point and began a push to get the city to protect the neighborhood.

The city's Scanlan noted that the Army Corps of Engineers is set to begin its own study of the entire Indian Creek watershed, and he said the city will share its study with the Corps. The Corps already has decided that building a major flood-protection system in the watershed would cost too much for the benefits that would accrue from such a system, Scanlan said.