Huntington Stormwater Utility to receive $5.1 million federal grant to upgrade floodwall, boost community resilience
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HUNTINGTON – The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) has awarded the Huntington Stormwater Utility a grant to stabilize and improve Huntington’s floodwall infrastructure.
The announcement was made Monday, Aug. 3, by Dana Gartzke, acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, along with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and Sen. Joe Manchin. They were joined by Mayor Steve Williams and Huntington Water Quality Board Executive Director Brian Bracey at an event at the West Virginia Regional Technology Park.
EDA has awarded $5,164,240 in grant funding for the infrastructure upgrade project under its disaster relief authority. The Huntington Stormwater Utility will match 20 percent of the grant award, providing $1,291,060 of the funding necessary for this $6,455,300 project. Huntington intends to begin the project in fall 2020.
Mayor Steve Williams praised EDA and Huntington’s other partners for making this investment in Huntington’s future.
“The Huntington Stormwater Utility and Sanitary Board continue to make positive strides to update Huntington’s infrastructure so that we remain a safe, healthy and growing community,” Williams said. “We are grateful to EDA and a team of dedicated allies from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, our congressional leaders, and other partners who are helping Huntington put this infrastructure upgrade into action.”
Specific infrastructure work planned will include stabilizing 11th Street floodwall pump station and adjacent monoliths, replacing a sewage line that originates inside the 11th Street pump station, and engineering a future project which could remove sewage line infrastructure entirely from the 11th Street and 9th Street pump stations to ensure the long-term resiliency of the system.
The Ohio River floodwall section was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1939 and 1943 and designed with a 50-year life span. Despite its age and need for some key upgrades, it is still strong and protective. It is 7.37 miles in length (3.7 miles of earthen levee and 3.67 miles of concrete floodwall) and follows the southern bank of the Ohio River from West Huntington through the downtown.
Flood events in 2015 and 2018 caused the 11th Street pump station to be moved and tilted, which caused the adjacent concrete monolith walls and the deep sewer outflow pipe to be pulled apart. A sinkhole appeared and has steadily worsened at the base of these 11th Street structures. Since then, the Huntington Stormwater Utility has been working with its floodwall engineers and the Corps of Engineers to determine the best solution for floodwall upgrades.
In addition to stabilizing the 11th Street pump station and adjacent monoliths and replacing a sewage line that originates inside the 11th Street pump station, the proposed grant also would pay for design and engineering costs of a long-term plan to remove sewer infrastructure entirely from the 9th and 11th Street pump stations, further strengthening the floodwall, decreasing the potential for combined sewer overflows and reducing operational costs to the Stormwater Utility and local taxpayers. The work was already approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in January 2019.
This floodwall improvement project is another step of progress by Huntington Sanitary Board and Stormwater Utility, which have continued to make investments and improvements in the community’s infrastructure. These steps of progress include:
- In November 2019, the Huntington Stormwater Utility won the “Most Improved” award from the Corps of Engineers for the Guyandotte section of the floodwall.
- For the first time in the history of the floodwall, the Stormwater Utility completed required gate closure exercises in accordance with the Corps of Engineers’ Operations and Maintenance manual in fall 2018. All gates will now be exercised every three years.
- The Stormwater Utility received a surface transportation block grant for engineering services to create a construction plan for drainage improvements on Arlington Boulevard. Drainage has been improved at the upper end of Arlington Boulevard. The Stormwater Utility expects to receive a notice to proceed on the next phase of the project from the West Virginia Division of Highways in the coming weeks.
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The Stormwater Utility has taken major steps to reduce underpass flooding in Huntington, including cleaning all drainage pipes and designing a more robust permanent solution. The Stormwater Utility intends to move forward on the projects to reduce flooding at the 8th and 10th Street underpass within the next month, contingent upon approval by the WV Division of Highways. The solution at the 8th and 10th Street underpass is to construct a wet well with two pumps at each underpass. The pumps will come on when water levels in the wet well are at a specific level, to keep water off the road.
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The Sanitary Board has cleaned and repaired 515 catch basins in Huntington in 2019, out of the more than 3,000 total catch basins in the city.
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The Sanitary Board in 2019 removed 1,132 tons of debris from city streets that otherwise would have contributed to street flooding.
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The Stormwater Utility has completed other important flood-control projects including storm line replacement on Green Oak Drive, Perry Street, Hibner Avenue, Kensington Lane, and McCoy Road.
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The Stormwater Utility continues to maintain a high level of compliance with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through its Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Program by implementing all seven program components.
Bracey and Huntington Stormwater Utility Director Sherry Wilkins said they are grateful to their dedicated staff and consulting engineers for their work to design and prepare for the floodwall improvement project. These local officials and Mayor Williams also appreciate the substantial and ongoing support from EDA’s West Virginia representative Tracey Rowan; Corps of Engineers Huntington District Commander Col. Jason Evers and his team for their efforts on designing a solution; FEMA Region 3 officials and West Virginia Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management officials for their backing; and other project partners and supporters.
Huntington officials are also grateful to Sen. Manchin, Sen. Capito and their staffs for their untiring support for this project, as well as Congresswoman Carol Miller’s backing of the project.
“The EDA has invested over $50 million into the Mountain State in the past five years alone, and without their support for our state and our people, our economy and businesses would be a lot worse for wear,” Sen. Manchin said. “Today’s project announcements highlight the great work being done across our state and in various sectors, from manufacturing to natural disaster preparedness. These projects are projected to create and retain over 2,500 jobs for West Virginians across our state. I am very proud of our state for showing that when you give West Virginians a chance, we will always show you how hardworking we are and we deserve the same chances as any other state to prove ourselves. I look forward to seeing these projects completed in the upcoming months and years and will continue to work with the EDA and West Virginia organizations to bring economic development funding to our state.”
“Improving our economy, revitalizing communities, and creating opportunities for West Virginians has been a top priority of mine since day one,” said Sen. Capito, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and chairman of the Senate EPW Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee. “The EDA has been a tremendous partner as I’ve worked to make this a reality in West Virginia, and today’s grant announcements are welcome news as we continue our work together to provide needed support to projects across the state. In particular, the funding to repair a portion of the floodwall that protects downtown Huntington will ensure catastrophes like the 1937 flood never happen again. Since 2015 when I first came to the Senate, I’ve prioritized increasing EDA funding for projects in our state that specifically spur economic development. Through my committee placements and strong partnership with EDA, we’ve been successful in increasing West Virginia’s EDA funding 770 percent. I’m thrilled to have EDA here in West Virginia today for this exciting announcement, and I look forward to continuing these efforts in the years to come.”