September 1996

Stormwater Utility Fees Fund Safety Project

by

Candy Augustine, Engineering Technician City of Tallahassee

A Capital Improvement Project in the final design phase in Tallahassee will benefit all residents of the community. The project focuses strictly on a public safety issue, rather than the mitigation of a specific flooding problem. Featuring an automated traffic warning system along a stretch of road prone to flooding, the $200,000 project will be funded entirely from the stormwater utility fees.

Customers who experience no flooding on their own property frequently complain that they are not receiving a benefit from the stormwater utility fees. While stormwater planning, water quality monitoring and infrastructure maintenance certainly enhance the community as a whole, these hidden improvements are not the typical benefit that the customers expect from a utility.

The Franklin Boulevard Capital Improvement Project (CIP) will include the installation of eighteen lighted signs at critical downtown intersections. Three water level sensors will be placed in the drainage ditch separating the north and southbound lanes of the boulevard. The sensors will be tied to signs first announcing that the road is subject to flooding and later that the road is closed to through traffic. During a rain event, both drivers and pedestrians will be alerted as they approach the often hazardous street.

Connecting Apalachee Parkway (US 27) and East Tennessee Street (US 90), Franklin Boulevard has been the object of study and debate for over twenty years in the North Florida community. In the 1970's, two students drowned as they were swept from a high school parking lot ditch into the downstream Franklin Boulevard ditch. This tragedy raised public awareness to the dangers of open waterways throughout the city, but no plans for comprehensive drainage improvements to the area were developed until many years later.

In 1989, improvements to the serious flooding problem in the Franklin Boulevard Drainage Basin were estimated at a cost of nearly $10 million but no commitment to the project was made. The next review (in November, 1990) estimated improvements at $7,880,000. Solutions to the problem were again determined to be too costly and solutions to the problem were postponed indefinitely.

While two associated projects were budgeted for Fiscal Year 1994, Franklin Boulevard flooding was not addressed again until after a severe storm in August of 1993. With flood levels recorded nearly three feet above the pavement, the rushing water had left drivers blind to the hidden waterway beneath the surface. In addition to the potential depth of the flood waters, the unpredictability of the rate at which the waters rose had left cars disabled and motorists stranded during the time they waited in the intersection for the light to change. While no loss of life had occurred during the 1993 storm, the dangerous situation for pedestrians and drivers led City and County Commissioners to agree on the installation of guardrail to remedy their immediate safety concerns and a promise to once again consider major infrastructure improvements.

The next study found that a number of issues had emerged to make implementation of the earlier plan not feasible. The downstream course of the waterway would require ponds at the site of a state-owned park where hazardous materials would require extensive clean-up expenses. Acquisition of the park and the environmental permits necessary for pond creation were seen as almost impossible to obtain. Project costs had grown from an estimated $7,880,000, in 1987 dollars, to a $11,500,000 in 1999 dollars.

Staff realized the vast scope of this one project would undermine the Stormwater Management Department's ability to respond to other pressing needs - ranging from regional, to neighborhood, to small nuisance projects. Thus, their recommendation was to focus on solving the urgent safety problem rather than attempt to tackle the root causes of or solutions to the flooding problem itself.

In October 1993, the City Commission approved the recommendation of staff and the design and construction phase moved forward. Survey work was scheduled, with planning and modeling accomplished by the Stormwater Management Department. The Traffic Engineering Division of the Public Works Department recommended the award of the design contract to Genesis Group, Inc. as a partner in the Computran-Genesis Tallahassee Signal System Joint Venture. This expanded the City's existing contract with Genesis Group. Their scope of services on the project ranges from data collection and system design to estimate preparation and construction services.

The equipment includes warning sign assemblies complete with radio receivers tuned to a frequency matching the transmitters at the high water sensors. Radio antennas will be attached to the top of the flasher cabinets and the assemblies will be housed in environmentally sealed PVC enclosures. Flashers will utilize zero-voltage turn-on and turn- off of current, eliminating electromagnetic interference. Sign panel movements will be operated by electric motor-driven mechanisms and will be powered by an automatic sequencing charger. The chargers are designed for use as a battery charge regulator in photo voltaic (solar) energy systems. Battery life is expected to be a minimum of five years.

With equipment and installation costs not expected to exceed $180,000, this is one capital improvement project that will offer a visual example of stormwater utility dollars at work for the entire community's benefit. The project is scheduled to begin this Fall and should be completed within 60 days after initiation.