photo by: City of Lawrence

The city map shows the Jayhawk Watershed, outlined in blue, with areas of flooding shown in gradients of blue.

With as much as $32 million needed to increase the city’s storm water system capacity in the Jayhawk Watershed and reduce neighborhood flooding, city engineers are hoping federal funding could help get projects done more quickly.

As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission received an update on the findings and recommendations of a study of the Jayhawk Watershed completed by JEO Consulting Group. The study included a recommendation of four projects, estimated to cost from $23 million to $32 million total, to increase the amount of rainwater the system can handle.

The city currently only has $6 million allocated toward those projects in the next few years, but Engineering Program Manager Matt Bond told the commission that the city could potentially be awarded federal infrastructure grants to help offset the impact on utility rates and make quicker progress on the project list.

“So we’re looking at different funding options, as far as not just what we can do for our own utility but outside federal money,” Bond said.

Current plans call for the city to negotiate a design contract for improvements for one of the four projects, return to the commission for design contract approval, and then bid that project at the beginning of 2024. Bond said the city could seek federal funding for that project, which is for project area B, and may be more likely to receive it since the project will be designed and “shovel ready.”

Vice Mayor Lisa Larsen said she’d like to see what it would take to do the necessary design and planning for two of the projects — project area A and project area B — so the city is in a better position to apply for federal infrastructure money or other federal assistance should it become available.

“It may warrant at least a discussion, because if the money is for shovel-ready projects, so to speak, then we would want to take advantage of that as much as possible,” Larsen said. “And we know we’re going to do it eventually.”

The watershed includes parts of the Old West Lawrence and Oread neighborhoods, including areas that have had problems with flooding during heavy rainfall. Residents in the Old West Lawrence neighborhood have previously voiced concerns to the commission about flooding and have questioned why the city had not moved forward on some improvements included in a 1996 storm water management plan.

The study broke the watershed into four project areas and determined how much wider pipes and drainage tunnels in the areas should be to adequately handle storm water. JEO and city staff recommend that the city should proceed first with work in project area B, which starts at approximately the intersection of Eighth and Ohio streets and ends at approximately the intersection of Ninth and Mississippi streets.

Bond said that typically work starts in the lowest-lying area of a watershed, which would be project area A, which starts at the Kansas River and ends at approximately the intersection of Eighth and Ohio streets. However, that area includes Watson Park, and Bond said because project A would significantly reduce but not eliminate flooding in the park, and only result in a minor reduction in flooding in Old West Lawrence, the recommendation was to take things out of the typical order and do project B first.

“Well, everybody knows that the park floods, and so whether it’s 3 inches or a foot difference of what we see today, it’s a good tradeoff to do (project area) B because now we can address those issues right away for the residents in a more timely fashion,” Bond said.

photo by: City of Lawrence

A flooded Watson Park is pictured in this undated City of Lawrence photo.

Bond said that construction in project area B would eliminate a majority of the localized neighborhood flooding within the watershed and would relocate the storm sewer system within the city right-of-way. However, moving forward with just that project would result in increased water surface in Watson Park. Project B is estimated to cost $7 million to $10 million and is currently planned for 2024. Project A is estimated to cost another $6 million to $8 million.

A city staff memo to the commission states that the cost of an engineering design contract will be brought to the City Commission in the near future.