Greencrest Channel project reduces flooding, erosion

Durelle Bossett has lived along the Greencrest drainage channel for 18 years and says flooding and erosion have been common there.

“(The city) had people coming out, surveying last summer,” she said. “There were pools of water, mosquitoes and the neighbor’s land washing away,” she said. “So this is great. Very happy about it.”

Last month, the city started work on a $3.87-million flood control project in the channel, located south of Austin Bluffs Parkway and west of Academy Boulevard.

Workers are smoothing the dirt channel bed and lining it with boulders to slow the flow of water and reduce traffic impacts on busy Austin Bluffs Parkway. Previously the rate of erosion was so fast that it threatened the stability of two nearby office buildings.

The project includes improving a smaller creek that flows into the main channel. The creek is beside Bossett’s property line and the noise of construction machinery is loud, but she said she doesn’t mind.

The city performed emergency repairs on the channel in 2010. The city contributed $1 million to the current project, with the rest coming from a federal grant.