Marty Gordon
Contributing writer
For almost a decade, residents and property owners in Christiansburg’s downtown area have been dealing with stormwater drainage problems. Most of those problems deal with Towne Branch, a tributary to Crab Creek, which feeds into the downtown area.
Earlier this year, the town received a grant from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation to conduct a downtown watershed study. Those results were released Tuesday during a community meeting showing nine drainage solutions.
Town staff admits a storm drain infrastructure project along Phlegar and Chrisman Streets is a high-priority project.
A storm event in 2015 flooded the watershed including most of those homes. The Phlegar project is now being listed in two phases with Phase 1 being $2.8 million and would collect runoff under Interstate 81, via a closed system along Chrisman Street, then crossing over to Phlegar. The project would follow the alignment of existing pipes.
Phase II would start at the intersection of Phlegar and Third streets and be a series of small box culverts and open channels. This project would cost $1.3 million and would require new easements from property owners.
A major recommendation of the study involves improvements along Hickok Street at a price tag of $2.7 million. This would include a new box culvert under Hickok to the intersection of Commerce Street, removing most of the current drainage underneath downtown businesses. Additional drainage would connect to an existing culvert under College Street.
The largest of the recommended projects at $6.9 million would clear up major drainage problems from College and Radford streets. Pipe size would be almost doubled to allow for the proper flow of water, pushing it into Towne Branch.
Number five on the study’s list is a drainage improvement project for North Franklin Street at a cost of $1.5 million and is already in the design phase by Gay and Neel. The town plans to use Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) revenue sharing monies to fund this project. It will require the combination of 42- and 60-inch pipes to collect runoff associated with the parking lots of town hall and will also eliminate current storm drains under existing businesses.
Radford Street drainage improvements is one of the smaller projects but will address clogged inlets and undersized pipes along the north side of the roadway. Again, the size of the pipes will be increased to allow for large runoff. The Radford Street project is estimated at $1.1 million.
Three smaller projects were also included in the study. They were: 1) Alleghany St./Canaan Road ($750,000); 2) Stone Street culvert replacement ($640,000) and 3) Roanoke Street drainage improvements $640,000.
A majority of the funding is expected to come from a Storm Water Enterprise Fund initiated by the town in 2016 as a revenue source to address flooding issues and storm drain maintenance needs. Matching funds could come from both state and federal sources.
Town council is expected to hear the consultant’s comments from the study at a future meeting.
