Rollingwood seeks engineering report focused on the city’s flooding concerns

Rollingwood officials moved one step closer to addressing its longstanding drainage and flooding concerns, often considered one of the city’s largest issues.

During a Nov. 18 meeting, Rollingwood City Council unanimously approved a contract with K. Friese & Associates, a civil engineering firm, to produce a preliminary engineering report on the city’s watershed system.

The regional issues will be broken down into three phases, with the first focused on the more immediate flooding issues on Nixon Drive and Pleasant Drive, where residents have often reported water accumulation.

K. Friese and council members, including Gavin Massingill, meet with the most impacted residents over a month to see the issues first head. Following that meeting, Massingill said the city gave K. Friese the green light to produce a more detailed scope of the necessary improvements.

The cost of the preliminary report was listed at $84,183, which includes a $23,094 surveying cost, according to city information. K. Friese also estimated the report would take approximately 90 days.

The process would emphasize stakeholder involvement, produce a variety of project phasing options and ensure that no adverse impacts are created downstream, according to K. Friese.

“While this is a fairly small area, it’s very urban; it’s complex,” K. Friese representative Abe Salinas said. “This is an issue that has been presented multiple times in the past, and efforts have been made to try to improve it.”

The full scope of Rollingwood’s flooding issues could cost the city more than $10 million, per its infrastructure improvements plan, and according to K. Friese, the new report will ensure the city makes a responsible investment.