The Village of Waterford, located on the west side of the Hudson River in Saratoga County, experienced catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Irene in August 2011. A neighborhood of 55 residences at the north end of the Village was inundated by rising water and suffered losses. The Village requested $1 million in Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Relief (CDBG-DR) funding under the New York Rising Community Reconstruction (NYRCR) program to complete the improvements described as the “Wetland Drainage System Improvements” in the Waterford NYRCR Plan.
Tectonic worked with the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery to appraise the request, perform an engineering and environmental project feasibility review, evaluate alternatives, outline regulatory requirements, and recommend viable approaches to control or mitigate the flooding impacts with the objective of achieving resiliency.
The final study recommended the provision of backflow prevention and construction of a municipal separate storm sewer trunk to improve drainage, reduce flooding, and increase access to first responders. A more extensive solution involving wetland detention behind a railroad embankment was found to be only marginally more effective at reducing flooding during high-frequency storm events.
