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Record of Proceedings

Work Session on Neighborhood Drainage and NOAA's Arc 2.0 - July 29, 2025

City Council Meetings — Tuesday, July 29, 2025
BodyTuscaloosa, Alabama
SessionCity Council Meetings
DateTuesday, July 29, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
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0:00

Work session.

0:01

So I certainly believe that indicates the importance of the issue we're going to be discussing today.

0:06

Before I get started, I do want to thank a lot of our team members who've had a part of this very comprehensive recommendation you'll see over the next couple hours.

0:17

I can't thank enough Mike Gardner and the work of him and Bill Butler and our city engineering team.

0:24

It's hard for us to take all of the amount of data and information and condense it to PowerPoint slides and just a few slides, and they've had the enviable task of trying to do that.

0:36

Putting the presentation together, I want to thank Sarah Brigger Gilmore and Huey Rutter and his team and that team for helping us try to put a message across that's digestible, not just by the city council, but for the people of Tuscaloosa.

0:52

Certainly want to thank Harley Standridge and her team for looking at the financing side of what we're going to be presenting later on in this presentation in the city attorney's office.

1:04

Again, the recommendations like today, they they don't come in isolation, they come because of the success of so many of our team members, and I certainly want to thank them for helping us put it together.

1:15

I want to begin by talking about just rainfall.

1:18

I pulled a chart for you from NOAA, and I'll throw it over there to Mr.

1:22

Vanier.

1:26

It looks at the average amount of rainfall just for the first few months of this year.

1:32

The dotted line that you see on this graph is the historical average rainfall in a given year for that month.

1:40

You can go through the chart and see.

2:01

Also, went back to try to find data points on the intensity of the rain.

2:06

One of the most interesting data points I found.

2:08

Now it's for Alabama, it's not for Tuscaloosa.

2:11

But since the 1950s, the intensity of the rain during thunderstorms has increased by 27%.

2:19

So even not just the amount of rain has increased overall, but the intensity of rain.

2:42

Certainly that means that our city, as well as cities across the United States, are having to deal with this issue.

2:48

So today you're going to see a recommendation that's really focused on short-term projects and long-term drainage projects.

2:56

So the first part of this presentation, we're going to talk about the neighborhood drainage fund and recommend a list of projects for that.

3:05

The second part of the presentation, we're going to be talking about NOAA's R 2.0.

3:10

And I will get into more details in that in just a second.

3:15

The video that you see playing, and I know Miss Kirby who's actually here will find this familiar.

3:22

This is some flooding that took place about three weeks ago in Academy Drive, which is in Mr.

3:29

Crow's district.

3:30

And I know Mr.

3:31

Crow was actually out there that evening.

4:00

But you can see what happened that evening out on Academy Drive.

4:05

Mayor, I'd like to point out in that video.

4:08

The two on the left were from Academy Drive.

4:12

The one on the far right is a video of Northampton.

4:18

Hawthorne Circle in Northampton.

4:20

So we do have two locations in this video, Academy Drive neighborhood and Northampton.

4:29

So the first set of recommendations is going to deal with the neighborhood drainage fund and where you see the raindrops that are on the map or the locations of the projects that we're recommending to the city council.

4:42

So the current drainage fund balance is 3.5 million dollars.

4:47

If you recall, the council adopted my recommendation just a few months ago to add $3 million into this fund.

4:54

We're also proposing to the city council that we reallocate $382,000 from Juanita Drive and a half a million from the public safety logistics.

5:04

The Wanita Drive project is at closeout.

5:08

The logistics has come in about 700,000 under budget.

5:12

So we have available funding, we believe that would really be good to place into neighborhood drainage.

5:18

If the council adopted that, and my recommendations are based on that assumption that we would have 4.38 million dollars for neighborhood drainage for the following projects.

5:30

So we would recommend Northampton, which Mr.

5:33

Gardner just talked about in a second.

5:35

That's 800,000.

5:36

The reason why Northampton and Bellevue are highlighted because those projects have already been discussed by the city council themselves, and there's already been an indication that once funding was restored, those projects would be in line.

5:50

So $800,000 for Northampton, a half a million for the Bellevue Drive Project, 1.2 million for the Academy Drive Protective Buyouts.

6:00

This would be the biops of three properties.

6:30

So first is the Northampton drainage.

6:33

Go back and give you an overview of where that is.

6:36

It's in Mr.

6:37

Crow's district in North Tuscaloosa, just east of watermelon road.

6:42

And Mr.

6:42

Gardner, you want to walk them through the aspects of the project?

6:46

Yes, sir.

6:47

So the slide that shows the red line is an approximate location of an alternate storm pipe route that we're proposing.

6:59

What we're having in this location is severe flooding of the roadways.

7:04

You can see in the images.

8:01

So that's Bellview.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Engineering And Infrastructure█████████████████████████████████████████████88%
Fiscal Sustainability████8%
Water And Wastewater Management██3%
Community Engagement█1%
Summary of Proceedings

Work Session on Neighborhood Drainage Fund and NOAA's Arc 2.0

On July 29, 2025, the Tuscaloosa City Council held a work session to discuss short-term and long-term drainage projects. Mayor Walt Maddox and city staff presented a two-part recommendation: a Neighborhood Drainage Fund for immediate projects (12-18 months) and NOAA's Arc 2.0, a $45.7 million bond initiative for larger, long-term drainage improvements. The presentation included rainfall data showing a 27% increase in thunderstorm intensity since the 1950s in Alabama.

Discussion Items

  • Neighborhood Drainage Fund – Mayor Maddox reported the current fund balance is $3.5 million, with an additional $3 million recently added by the council. He proposed reallocating $382,000 from the Juanita Drive project and $500,000 from public safety logistics, bringing the total to $4.38 million for the following projects:

    • Northampton ($800,000) – alternate storm pipe route to reduce roadway flooding; design 80% complete.
    • Bellevue Drive ($500,000) – replacement of a collapsed 72-inch corrugated metal pipe (CMP) and lining of remaining pipe; bids to be received next week.
    • Academy Drive Protective Buyouts ($1.2 million) – voluntary buyouts of three properties that flooded even with planned improvements; appraisals already completed.
    • 36th Avenue East & Rainbow Drive – CMP replacement with reinforced concrete pipe.
    • Waterfall neighborhood – install storm sewer to capture runoff before it overtops driveways.
    • Oakdell phase 3 – concrete lining of earthen ditches.
    • Beverly Heights – improve storm pipe capacity and ditch improvements. City Engineer Mike Gardner noted most of these projects are nearly emergency status and have been on the list for a long time.

  • NOAA's Arc 2.0 – Mayor Maddox proposed a $45.7 million bond issue, primarily funded through the elevate program, with estimated debt service of $2.8–$2.9 million per year for 30 years. The bond would not be issued until 2027 or 2028 to allow for engineering and design; a $15 million line of credit would be used for early work. The recommended projects are:

    • Academy Drive/Stone River/Manassas/Fredericksburg ($3.75 million) – highest priority due to isolating 27 homes and structural flooding; includes culvert replacement, channel improvements, and CMP lining.
    • Eastover ($2.5 million) – flooding at 36th/37th/38th Streets; CMP replacement and ditch improvements.
    • 10th Avenue & 19th Street ($6.8 million) – flooding from Central High School area; pipe replacement, inlet capacity, channel stabilization.
    • Heritage Hills phase 1 ($1.1 million) – roadway flooding and home damage; possible buyout option under study.
    • Cypress Creek phases 2 & 3 (combined $9.6 million for phase 3) – stream bank stabilization, channel protection, and infrastructure improvements.
    • Rosewood Linwood ($2.5 million) – concrete lining of remaining channel.
    • Riggs Road & 31st Street East – concrete lining of ditches and drainage improvements.
    • Lincoln Park – curb and gutter installation with proper storm drainage. Additionally, $5 million was set aside for contingency, property buyouts, and grant matching.

  • Council Questions and Discussion – Council members asked about the Gardner scale used to prioritize projects (based on travel impediments, public infrastructure impact, nuisance disruption, and significant resident/business hardship). Mayor Maddox acknowledged the recommendation does not strictly follow the engineer's order but balances citywide needs. Councilman asked about the buyout process and confirmed appraisals are done. Councilman inquired about a grant for Groups Mill Creek (not awarded). Councilman noted Taylor Circle and other areas were considered but not included due to cost-effectiveness or potential buyout options. The mayor encouraged further discussions and emphasized the council can reorder projects.

Key Outcomes

  • No formal votes were taken; the work session was informational.
  • The council will consider the Neighborhood Drainage Fund projects for approval at upcoming public projects and finance committee meetings.
  • The NOAA's Arc 2.0 proposal will be discussed further in additional work sessions, with the council deciding on the scope, funding mechanism, and project list.
  • The mayor recommended prioritizing the smaller neighborhood drainage projects first to achieve quick impacts, then moving to the larger bond-funded initiatives.

Meeting Transcript

Work session. So I certainly believe that indicates the importance of the issue we're going to be discussing today. Before I get started, I do want to thank a lot of our team members who've had a part of this very comprehensive recommendation you'll see over the next couple hours. I can't thank enough Mike Gardner and the work of him and Bill Butler and our city engineering team. It's hard for us to take all of the amount of data and information and condense it to PowerPoint slides and just a few slides, and they've had the enviable task of trying to do that. Putting the presentation together, I want to thank Sarah Brigger Gilmore and Huey Rutter and his team and that team for helping us try to put a message across that's digestible, not just by the city council, but for the people of Tuscaloosa. Certainly want to thank Harley Standridge and her team for looking at the financing side of what we're going to be presenting later on in this presentation in the city attorney's office. Again, the recommendations like today, they they don't come in isolation, they come because of the success of so many of our team members, and I certainly want to thank them for helping us put it together. I want to begin by talking about just rainfall. I pulled a chart for you from NOAA, and I'll throw it over there to Mr. Vanier. It looks at the average amount of rainfall just for the first few months of this year. The dotted line that you see on this graph is the historical average rainfall in a given year for that month. You can go through the chart and see. Also, went back to try to find data points on the intensity of the rain. One of the most interesting data points I found. Now it's for Alabama, it's not for Tuscaloosa. But since the 1950s, the intensity of the rain during thunderstorms has increased by 27%. So even not just the amount of rain has increased overall, but the intensity of rain. Certainly that means that our city, as well as cities across the United States, are having to deal with this issue. So today you're going to see a recommendation that's really focused on short-term projects and long-term drainage projects. So the first part of this presentation, we're going to talk about the neighborhood drainage fund and recommend a list of projects for that. The second part of the presentation, we're going to be talking about NOAA's R 2.0. And I will get into more details in that in just a second. The video that you see playing, and I know Miss Kirby who's actually here will find this familiar. This is some flooding that took place about three weeks ago in Academy Drive, which is in Mr. Crow's district. And I know Mr. Crow was actually out there that evening. But you can see what happened that evening out on Academy Drive. Mayor, I'd like to point out in that video. The two on the left were from Academy Drive. The one on the far right is a video of Northampton. Hawthorne Circle in Northampton. So we do have two locations in this video, Academy Drive neighborhood and Northampton. So the first set of recommendations is going to deal with the neighborhood drainage fund and where you see the raindrops that are on the map or the locations of the projects that we're recommending to the city council. So the current drainage fund balance is 3.5 million dollars. If you recall, the council adopted my recommendation just a few months ago to add $3 million into this fund. We're also proposing to the city council that we reallocate $382,000 from Juanita Drive and a half a million from the public safety logistics. The Wanita Drive project is at closeout. The logistics has come in about 700,000 under budget. So we have available funding, we believe that would really be good to place into neighborhood drainage. If the council adopted that, and my recommendations are based on that assumption that we would have 4.38 million dollars for neighborhood drainage for the following projects. So we would recommend Northampton, which Mr. Gardner just talked about in a second. That's 800,000. The reason why Northampton and Bellevue are highlighted because those projects have already been discussed by the city council themselves, and there's already been an indication that once funding was restored, those projects would be in line. So $800,000 for Northampton, a half a million for the Bellevue Drive Project, 1.2 million for the Academy Drive Protective Buyouts. This would be the biops of three properties. So first is the Northampton drainage.

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