Turf is all that is missing from one of the biggest flood projects ever undertaken by the Hopkinsville Surface and Stormwater Utility. Contractors are on track to finish two detention basins just south of Pardue Lane by mid-September.

Dave Herndon, Planning Services Coordinator for Community and Development Services, said the basins are already at grade. Crews have also installed culverts and narrowed existing channels as prescribed by the Master Drainage Plan.

“Functionally, it’s done,” Herndon said.

Once the topsoil and grass go down, the Woodmont Basin Project will be fully ready for sinkhole and stormwater flooding. The main basin on Pardue Lane can hold runoff from a 100-year downpour.

The new detention system is also designed to slow runoff. Previously, water could flow rapidly through 3-foot ditches to threaten neighborhoods downstream. But work crews have installed drainage structures with 8-inch wide orifices so that more water backs up into the detention basins rather than going downstream into residential neighborhoods.

As a result, surrounding neighborhoods will be much safer from floods, Herndon said. Historically, homes in Woodmont Subdivision, North Sunset Circle and South Sunset Circle suffer major property damage from rising waters.

The city bought the land on Pardue Lane from R.C. Owen, for Phase II of the Woodmont Basin Project.

Phase I, completed this spring, is also a large detention basin with outlet structures. The property, previously known as the Shelton farm, lies a half-mile to the west of the Pardue Lane basins and protects homes along Springmont Drive.

This combination of basins poses an effective flood countermeasure. The Woodmont watershed, named for a nearby street, has been a troublemaker during the city’s worst floods. Dozens of homes within the watershed were inundated during the 1997 and 2005 floods.

Land acquisition, engineering, construction and inspection all included, the total project costs about $1.4 million. The utility is paying for it with bond proceeds from the City of Hopkinsville.

Phase II was contracted to local firm, JKS Architects/Engineers. When complete, the city has the further option of building a passive park on the property. The property’s layout and location lends itself to recreational trails and picnic areas. In fact, the Recovery Action Plan currently pending before Hopkinsville City Council lists such a park on Pardue Lane as a high priority.
 
For more information, call (270) 887-4285 or email dherndon@comdev-services.com.