Turning the tide

Funding secured for Belfield flooding solution

Posted

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the town of Johnston held a press conference Monday to announce a plan that officials hope will end flooding issues on Belfield Drive.

The project, as outlined in a USDA press release issued at Johnston Municipal Court before the event, has secured funding to purchase floodplain easements on affected properties along the road.

Belfield Drive saw significant flooding during the spring storms of 2010, and again saw inundation in the fall of 2018. The town spent more than $100,000 to rent a pump to alleviate flooding on the latter occasion, an expenditure Mayor Joseph Polisena said he would not repeat when the area became flooded again earlier this spring.

“Public safety was never – I repeat, never – at risk. I always made sure that if people had to evacuate, or if a rescue was needed or a fire truck was needed, that there would be no problem,” Polisena said at Monday’s press conference. “The agreement I’ll be signing today will create a permanent solution to the flooding area of Belfield Drive. Our town would not have been able to mitigate this problem without the help and assistance from the federal government.”

USDA State Engineer Alan Gillespie delved further into the inner workings of the phases when speaking to assembling media after the press conference.

Phase 1 – which Gillespie said he expects to be completed no later than this fall – will include the removal of the home and relocation of residents at 68 Belfield Drive. Gillespie said there will also be designs created for the future of the roadway, which he said could be raised between 3 and 4 feet.

“There’s an existing pipe that’s under the road right now, that will be evaluated during the construction to make sure that it’s stable,” Gillespie said. “The design will likely include additional stabilization for that culvert, but it’s there right now and it’s a big pipe, it’s 4 feet in diameter, which will allow water to go back and forth, into the pooling area.”

He said Phase 1 will cost about $650,000 and have little impact on Belfield Drive residents. He said those who will be leaving 68 Belfield Drive will “immediately benefit” from not living in the flooded area any longer. There is another home to which a purchase offer was made – 51 Belfield Drive – but both Gillespie and Natural Resources Conservation Service State Conservationist Phou Vongkhamdy said the owner refused.

Gillespie said Phase 2, which could total just under $1 million, will be when residents of the area start to see an effect. There will also be little inconvenience as one lane will remain open at all times.

“There will just be traffic direction to allow traffic to continue, so folks on the dead end will not be prohibited from traveling to the main roads,” Gillespie said. “We’re moving the earth fill that was put there to make it a residential area, creating that natural flooding area so the water can spread out instead of staging up. When you spread it out, instead of staging up, that has an overall net benefit.”

Tania Nova – a Belfield resident who has previously spoken to the Sun Rise about flooding on the road – still has her reservations.

“I can tell you that it may be a slow process, it will be a Band-Aid to the real problem,” Nova said via text message Monday night. “They are raising the road only 2 feet, but not fixing the crushed culvert.”

That crushed culvert, which is located in the woods on Hartford Avenue, will be a “longer-term fix,” according to Gillespie. Polisena said the town doesn’t know who owns the property where the culvert sits. He said Deputy Police Chief Joseph Razza has visited the wooded area and investigated the culvert, which Polisena said was collapsed with debris that was dumped “years ago before my time in politics.”

“Allegedly, the culvert has been collapsed because of all the debris that has been thrown in there,” Polisena said. “It first reared its ugly head in 2010 with the historic floods, and then we thought we were away from that for another 100 years, but obviously that didn’t happen. Last year, when we got historic rainfall again, it seemed to fill up again.”

Vongkhamdy said that Belfield Drive is the primary concern, and the Environmental Protection Agency will have to be consulted for the crushed culvert because the area is a brownfield. Vongkhamdy did acknowledge, though, that the matter “needs to be taken care of and we’re going to have to come together.”

“But that is another time,” he added.

“In the future, when we pursue further downstream, we’ll have to bring in EPA, because as my supervisor said, that’s actually brownfield, so we don't have the jurisdiction,” Gillespie said. “EPA will have to be the lead. Unfortunately we can’t speak or commit EPA at this time to any activities.”

The funding was obtained through the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, which allows NRCS to “purchase permanent easements on eligible lands and restore the floodplain functions in the easement area to their natural conditions.” The release added that participation in the project is voluntary.

U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed, Dist. 43 state Rep. Deborah A. Fellela and Dist. 1 Town Councilwoman Linda L. Folcarelli were in attendance, as well as Rhode Island Association of Conservation Districts President Richard Went and Northern Rhode Island Conservation District Manager Gina DeMarco. Police Chief Richard Tamburini, Razza and Fire Chief Peter Lamb also stood in the chambers area of the court. Polisena also thanked Gov. Gina Raimondo for her role in the process.

The parties came together to sign the official agreements putting the plan into effect.

“Today’s memorandum of understanding outlines the collaboration between our local, state and federal partners to provide much-needed relief to the great citizens of Belfield Drive,” Gillespie said. “This is the first milestone, we look forward to many more successful milestones and being here with you once again.”

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here