Russellville Master Drainage Plan
Russellville, Arkansas
The City of Russellville, AR, selected FTN to develop a Master Stormwater Management Plan to help alleviate the chronic flooding that has occurred historically in the City. During the course of the project, FTN:
Used one of the first applications in the state of Arkansas of real-time kinematic (RTK) Global Positioning System (GPS) techniques to efficiently obtain channel surveys for input to the numerical hydraulic models for computing water surface profiles;
Pioneered the combined use of hydraulic models, 3D elevation contour data, and digital terrain models in the state to compute flood elevations and map inundation areas;
Developed a Visual Basic program to access and update a database of bridge and culvert data and panoramic digital photos at each location; and
Used the dynamic wave unsteady flow model UNET and iterative refinement of channel reach storage-discharge relationships to route channel flows downstream more accurately than conventional methods (i.e., steady flow backwater models and simplified channel routing).
As a result of these innovations, the City saved over $100,000 on channel survey costs compared to conventional differential leveling; established a system of readily accessible benchmarks that are used daily; saved millions of dollars in capital improvement costs as a direct result of the development of more accurate flood profiles; and has a plan with prioritized capital improvements for each stream crossing to help reduce flooding and eliminate overtopping of major arterial streets for up to the 4% annual chance exceedance storm.
