The impact of rain in Arvada

BY LILLIAN FUGLEI LFUGLEI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

is summer’s many rain storms are having impacts across Colorado. For Arvada, there may be some unexpected bene ts from the rain alongside the drawbacks.

According to Katie Patterson, communications manager for infrastructure for the City of Arvada, the biggest impact of the rain has been on ongoing construction.

“Work can’t get done when we have really intense rains like that. And so it can delay projects,” said Patterson. “ ere are two big road construction projects. Both saw some of those delays on (both) Ralston Road and West 72nd.”

Patterson added that, for Ralston Road particularly, that rain caused some ooding.

“ e road is essentially, you know, on its subgrade surface level, instead of that all the way up on where like the normal paving would be,” said Patterson. “Which means that the water has to pool up further before it can get into the storm system.”

According to Melanie Walter, oodplain engineering manager for the City of Arvada, this ooding created more work.

“We do have a lot more dewater- ing of construction sites too, and that can lead to water quality issues,” Walter said. “So you know, the dewatering has to be very careful. We have to make sure that that’s being treated before it’s released into the waterways as well.”

However, the rains have also been bene cial, particularly for Walter’s work. She said the rains had “shown (her) where our pinch points are, where our infrastructure is really causing the day-to-day problems, and where our dollars need to go.” e rains showed Walter the main area of focus for Arvada: drainage ways.

First are the open drainage ways, which are the creeks and ditches that help drain water from an area. They’re the drainage ways people can see.

“In the open drainage ways, we’ve seen where we need to manage the vegetation. So the more vegetation that’s in an open drainage way, the less flood-carrying capacity it has,” said Walter. “So we have to take a look at when it’s starting to threaten homes or property or threatening flooding in the street, it’s things like that. And that really informs where we focus our maintenance.”

Walter added that open drainage ways weren’t the only priority. Pipes and streets also need a certain flood-carrying capacity to avoid flooding.

“So we need to make sure that our streets and our pipes have the capacity to handle those types of flooding events,” said Walter. “Real life and what these rains have really shown us the last couple of months is truly where our priorities need to land…It’s helped us inform where we really need to push our dollars, as far as the pipe networking.”