MADISON TOWNSHIP — The Richland County Board of Commissioners on Thursday approved a $50,000 request from Madison Township to assist with a long-time stormwater drainage problem at the intersection of Manner and Eastview drives.
Commissioners approved spending American Rescue Plan Act funds during a meeting that included Madison Township Trustee Dan Fletcher, Richland County Engineer Adam Gove and representatives from Shaffer, Johnston, Lichtenwalter & Associates of Mansfield.
Gove said flooding occurs in the area primarily during heavy rains.
Commissioner Tony Vero said, “The debris just flows right in and blocks that culvert. I think residents will be happy (with the improvement).”
The total cost of the project, including design, is estimated at $139,947, according to Fletcher, who said the township will pay the remaining $89,947.
Trustees in March, before the project was designed, voted Monday to appropriate up to $150,000 from township ARPA funds toward the project.
Fletcher said the unused township ARPA funds can to toward other projects.
The intersection is in a neighborhood northeast of the U.S. 30 and U.S. 42 intersection.
Fletcher said the plan is to remove a 30-inch culvert about 80 feet in length and replace it with a 66-inch by 50-inch oval culvert about 90 feet long.
“If you pit that in perspective, you can barely crawl through the existing culvert and the new one would be big enough you could almost drive a four-wheeler through it,” Fletcher said.
“Culvert sizes are calculated through an engineer, based on water flow from around the area,” he said, adding the existing culvert, likely installed in the 1960s, is “greatly undersized.”
“They’re going to do some concrete head walls, some rock channel and some landscaping improvements,” he said.
(Below are submitted photos showing previous flooding issues near the intersection of Manner and Eastview drives in Madison Township.)
In order to use ARPA funds, appropriations must be made by the end of 2024 and all work completed by the end of 2026.
Fletcher said trustees would advertise for bids for the project on Thursday and would open bids on Dec. 9. Gove said the contract calls for work to be complete by Aug. 1, 2025.
Gove said the township has taken previous steps to try to ease the problem.
“They have improved the storm sewer upstream. They have improved the storm sewer downstream. This was kind of the last remaining (step),” Gove said.
