City approves engineering services to assess creek wall damage

The Madison City Commission has approved a contract for engineering services to be done on portions of the Park Creek wall to survey and assess damage caused by last month’s flooding.  During their meeting Monday, commissioners approved a contract with Banner Associates of Brookings to do survey, damage assessment, and preliminary design services on three areas of the creek walls.  City Engineer Chad Comes told commissioners Monday about the different damaged locations.   

Comes said that he would like to have Banner engineers complete the first two phases of their services – the survey and damage assessment – while the weather is cooperative to do it.  He said that the actual repair work on these particular areas of the wall could be costly.

Comes said that it is likely that the city could receive some federal and state funding to help with the cost of the repairs, but that won’t be determined until a presidential disaster declaration is approved.  He said that having engineers do this work now will help the city be ready to present the information to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state Historical Preservation Office in the future.  

Comes said the third phase of Banner’s engineering services will also include an analysis of other alternatives. 

The total cost of all phases of the engineering services is just more than 101-thousand-500-dollars.  Commissioners Monday approved the engineering contract with Banner, with the funding coming from the city’s general fund cash balance.