City wrongfully allowed flooding Published 9:27am Friday, June 5, 2015
In 1978 the federal government paid the city of Albert Lea to buy out and relocate property owners that live in the South Virginia Place area due to flooding — flooding that was created by the city. Now after nearly 40 years of continued flooding the city of Albert Lea admits the flooding could have been stopped. The lift station located on South Virginia Place continued to have the amount of storm water increased to this location from Broadway Avenue and many other surrounding streets that resulted in the eventual overload. That vulnerability continues to this day when it could have been corrected almost four decades ago. The storm sewer system needs a major upgrade in this area so the fear of flooding and the damage that comes along with it will become only a memory of the past.
Thank you for relaying your concern. I just read the article in the Albert Lea Tribune, and based on my limited knowledge of the project (I haven’t seen the plans or project limits), I could see the justification to upgrading the city storm sewer with the reconstruction of Virginia Place and 5th Street.
Unfortunately, MnDOT can not force the City to upgrade their storm sewer system. We do encourage the City of Albert Lea to develop a plan for this system to reduce the potential for flooding. Considering MnDOT makes up a portion of this storm sewer system, MnDOT would likely be a stakeholder for this plan. However, since the City controls the lift station/outlet and a large portion of the system, the City would lead the development of the plan to reduce flooding.
If you have any additional questions or comments, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Kris
District Hydraulics Engineer MnDOT District 6 (SE MN)
This is my exact statement before the Freeborn County Board of Appeal and Equalization on Monday, June 15, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. in the County Boardroom.
QUOTE
I again want to say that my property value will not benefit from the improvements on Virginia Place by 20%. My house was listed at $45,000 in 2014, I paid $38,900.
If I decided to sell my house, I would be lucky if I could get what the estimated property value is currently, $67,000.
I will have to disclose what the City of Albert Lea said on May 26th. (Flooding will continue until upgrades to the storm sewer and lift station are made.)
At this time I have not heard of any attempt by the City to correct a four decade old flooding problem created by the City of Albert Lea and the Minnesota DOT.
I would hope that the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners will be able to influence the City of Albert Lea to correct this problem.
Retention Basins(Pond) should be used to manage storm water more often.. Half of this lot would be a perfect location to store storm water tempoarily that starts to backup in the storm sewer at a fraction of the cost to replace the entire storm sewer system. This is 822 S Broadway..
Dry Extended Detention Pond (Not even close to $20,000,000.00)
Cost Considerations
Dry extended detention ponds are the least expensive stormwater treatment practice, on a cost per unit area treated. The construction costs associated with these facilities range considerably. One recent study evaluated the cost of all pond systems. Adjusting for inflation, the cost of dry extended detention ponds can be estimated with the equation:
C = 12.4V0.760
Where:
C = Construction, Design and Permitting Cost V = Volume needed to control the 10-year storm (cubic feet) Using this equation, a typical construction costs are: $ 41,600 for a 1 acre-foot pond $ 239,000 for a 10 acre-foot pond $ 1,380,000 for a 100 acre-foot pond
Interestingly, these costs are generally slightly higher than the cost of wet ponds on a cost per total volume basis. Dry extended detention ponds are generally less expensive on a given site, however, because they are usually smaller than a wet pond design for the same site.
Ponds do not consume a large area compared to the total area treated (typically 2-3% of the contributing drainage area). It is important to note, however, that each pond is generally large. Other practices, such as filters or swales, may be "squeezed in" in relatively unusable land, but ponds need a relatively large continuous area.
For ponds, the annual cost of routine maintenance is typically estimated at about 3 to 5% of the construction cost. Alternatively, a community can estimate the cost of the maintenance activities outlined in the maintenance section. Finally, ponds are long-lived facilities (typically longer than 20 years). Thus, the initial investment into ponds systems may be spread over a relatively long time period.
How much rain and over what duration? Looks like a number of locations flooded briefly.
You should be going to every council meeting bringing up the storm water issues. Present your thoughts on retention areas, and demand the City make upgrading the lift station and outlet piping a priority. Or that they buy you all out at fair market value plus moving expenses.
I question some of the retention areas you presented. Does the city currently own all that property? What drainage area contributes to these locations? Is it a big enough contributing area to improve your flooding situation? Or would the money spent for those areas be better put into upgrading the outflow areas and pumps?
The Mayor told me that it would cost $20 million dollars to correct the flooding issues in the area.. This is the reason I am showing low cost alternatives since he says the City can't afford it..
The properties would need to be purchased by the City..
Those retention ponds would be used just before the storm sewer going north on Broadway begins to backup.. The one at Southtown Liquor would support 822 Broadway retention pond.. Both would delay storm water from re-entering back into the storm sewer and eliminate all the original runoff created by those two locations..
The Broadway road surface would only be disturbed for an overflow and return sewer lines going to and from the retention ponds which would result in a fraction of the cost compared to replacing everything.. Its a Win, Win, Win situation..
The properties being flooded at the beginning of this video are the same properties owned by the Housing & Redevelopment Authority of Albert Lea in the picture below.
Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 3040
Joined: Oct. 2003
Posted on: Jun. 20 2015,3:54 pm
I drove down Virginia Place last week, even slowing down to 10 mph was too hard on the car. It's like the Oak Park Mall parking lot, so many potholes you'll steer away from one only to hit another.
I've gotten the impression that there are some on the council that don't want to invest in infrastructure at all, only "beautification" or walkability projects. I'm all for being "green", but we still need adequate roads, plumbing, and flood mitigation in those neighborhoods.
IMO, if it's not part of the Blue Zones, it won't get done. Sad, but true.
-------------- You know it's going to be a bad day when you cross thread the cap on the toothpaste.
