The City of Flagstaff is working with state agencies to make some emergency repairs to the area’s infrastructure after a culvert under US 180 was compromised last week.
The Flagstaff City Council on Tuesday made progress in obtaining access to the necessary property for work that is likely to occur this fall, as well as emergency work slated to occur in the coming weeks, the city said. stormwater manager Ed Schenk told reporters.
The city is in contact with local property owners, including the Northern Arizona Museum, Grand Canyon Trust, American Conservation Experience, and Mount Calvary Lutheran Church.
The move comes as temperatures in Flagstaff and the highlands are forecast to be slightly higher than average in the mid-to-high 60s over the weekend and next week, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Benji Johnson. . Nonetheless, Johnson said runoff from snowmelt would remain about the same or increase only slightly, with projected somewhat higher moisture later in the week that could help accelerate snowmelt. He said he expects
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Otherwise, much of the snow has already melted, Johnson said, and what remains is at sufficiently high elevations that runoff is expected to remain consistent, but decline slowly for the time being. To do.
But that spill still needs to be managed. That’s why the Arizona Department of Transportation replaced less than 180 plumbing last week. According to an ADOT spokesperson, lane restrictions along that section of the 180 could continue for some time.
Schenk said the work the city is looking to complete soon includes digging trenches to ease pressure on other infrastructure in the area. Work scheduled for later this fall will be more substantial.
The city of Schenck said it hopes to get help from the state to fund the effort.
“So we asked the state for $8.9 million, which has gone through a state budget request and budget process.
He added that if the funding request is approved, a portion of the funds will also be used to maintain the three jails upstream of Schultz “Y.”
Although it’s intended to address post-fire flooding rather than annual runoff, city officials previously said three Schultz reservoirs would be built to help manage the extreme runoff the city is experiencing this spring. We talked about how useful it is.
Earlier this month, running water filled 100% of the basin’s 18 million gallon capacity, and city officials “temporarily erected” locks to the basin to manage the flow.
And, if it’s approved, it’s one improvement to the Schultz Basin that state funds can help fund. It’s a piece of metal.
“It’s a temporary solution,” Schenk said.
However, dredging the three basins before the monsoon season is probably more important than these improvements. When meltwater enters the basin, it carries with it a significant amount of silt and dirt, much of which is deposited in the top basin.
“We definitely lost a little bit of capacity in the first basin,” says Schenk.
He said the capacity loss is “probably less than 10%. But assuming we can dry it out before the monsoon season, we’ll dredge it up.”
If the state does not meet its funding demands, Schenk said the city will consider completing the project and using local dollars to fund the dredging.
“We want that state quota. It will come from the General Fund,” Schenk said.
Of course, the runoff has decreased, but there is still a lot of snow on the mountains. This should keep a Rio Defrag-like drain running for quite some time.
Rio’s rafters: Residents make the most of Flagstaff’s extreme meltwater
Stacey Brechler-Naggs, City of Flagstaff’s emergency manager, said how much the runoff would decline would depend almost entirely on warmer weather. This can make dealing with spills somewhat difficult.
But Brechler-Knaggs said the city has the option of activating a flood incident team if another flood occurs.
Additionally, people in affected areas may want to keep sandbags on hand or place them around the doors and windows of their homes.
“We are asking the community to be prepared and to understand how to protect their property. When we see a level of danger and response that requires the community to be informed, we will issue a press release. As such, we ask community members to take action to protect their property and be vigilant,” said Brechler-Naggs.
Self-filling sandbags (and “Limited Supply of Prefilled Sandbags”) are available at Thorpe Park on Azteca Street (by the softball field) and Coconino County Health and Welfare Building at 2625 N. King Street.
