Coconino County, Arizona engaged Civiltec Engineering to address flood risk following the Museum Fire of July 2019. In anticipation of post-fire rainfall, the County tasked Civiltec with designing mitigation measures for areas at risk of high flow-rate and volume-runoff. The project scope calls for Civiltec to provide on-call engineering services, including site visits, maps, coordination, and design of temporary flood mitigation devices and placements. Civiltec will also provide additional engineering services as needed, such as surveying services.
The Museum Fire burned through 1,961 acres in the Dry Lake Hills area above Flagstaff. The watershed that was burned drains through residential and commercial areas within the City of Flagstaff. Immediately after the fire, Rick and Chris worked with an emergency response team tasked with modeling potential flooding impacts from rainfall over the burned watershed. They developed mitigation strategies for immediate implementation to minimize the impacts of potential flooding.
After developing strategies with the team, Civiltec worked with construction crews and volunteers in the field to implement the plans. Fortunately, the watershed has not received a significant amount of rainfall and no flooding has occurred since the fire.
Civiltec is currently working with the City of Flagstaff on a plan for improving the drainage crossing at Linda Vista Drive. This is the first road crossing where potential flood water and debris will enter the City. Improvements will include increasing the capacity of the existing drainage crossing and installation of various structures to minimize the impacts of flood and fire debris on the drainage crossing.
Civiltec Founder Rick Shroads, P.E. and Vice President Chris Dusza, P.E., C.F.M. are the project principals. Work for the project is expected to be completed in October 2019.