2019 flooding in the Quad Cities. (Photo by Fred Carman)
Davenport residents are being asked for their opinions on how best to protect people and property from flooding — and at what cost.
The city is launching the next phase of its Mississippi River flood study with a range of strategies being discussed in a video presentation, public meetings and a survey. Clay Merritt, Davenport’s assistant director of Public Works, says three primary strategies in flood protection are divided by flood stage — from 18 to 23 feet, 24 feet, and 27 feet and higher.
“You can walk through those in that video and you walk through those in the online survey that you take and you can provide your opinion on those things,” Merritt says. “The reason why we do those strategies is we’re getting the opinion of the public on what type of flood stage they looking for the city to provide.”
Flood stage in the Quad Cities is 15 feet, and the record in 2019 was set at almost 23-feet. Merritt notes, the higher the flood stage, the higher the price. Cost estimates are included in the presentation and survey, with the least expensive options priced from 12-to-18 million dollars.
The most expensive, such as a flood wall, range from 220-million to 370-million dollars. People can also examine the options by location along all nine miles of the Davenport riverfront.
“We have four different types of standard projects and you can mix and match them as you go to get the level of protection you’re looking for,” Merritt says. “It’s typically either storm sewer improvements, raising roads to get them higher than the level of the water, you can have earthen berms, or various degrees of flood wall.”
The video and survey are online and the presentations are being aired on Mediacom’s Public Access Channel. Paper copies of the survey are also available at Davenport libraries. Completed surveys may be dropped off at library book drops or mailed to Davenport Public Works. The deadline is the end of the month.
(By Michelle O’Neill, WVIK, Rock Island)