Flood Mitigation Solutions Sought by Task Force

CABOT — It took only a walk upstream for two engineers to realize one of the bridges on Cabot’s Main Street is dangerously undersized to handle debris swept in by floodwaters.

“Fundamentally we’re asking these structures to do things they’re just not intended to deal with,” said one of them, Roy Schiff, a principal water resources engineer at SLR Consulting, a sustainability-focused company with an office in Waterbury.

The firm has been hired by Cabot’s Flood Resiliency Task Force to do an in-depth study on the town’s rivers and possible solutions to flooding. Their work, which will begin in late July and continue through October, was made possible by a $70,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency grant awarded to the town this May, said Gary Gulka, chair of the task force. The group plans to hold a public meeting with the consultants in August.

Schiff and his coworker started surveying July 25, going up the Winooski River’s northern tributary in the village. Starting alongside the recreation field, they walked nearly a mile and stopped near Menard Road. They peered down freshly eroded banks and estimated almost 1,000 cubic yards of sediment is trapped in log jams, Schiff said.

If dislodged, those jams could send all that debris shooting toward the village, he said. The bridge right before South Walden Road simply doesn’t have enough space underneath to handle the possible disasters that exist upstream, he said.

The conclusion comes as no surprise to the task force members, who have seen the bridge overwhelmed by floodwaters twice in the span of a year. Gulka said the research and proposed solutions from the consulting firm will be crucial for the town’s flood mitigation plan going forward.

Gulka helped craft the application for the grant funding the effort, which is part of FEMA’s advance assistance program. He said it requires no matching money from the town. In the next few months, the study will also allow the town to apply for a FEMA hazard mitigation grant that could give Cabot the resources needed to get the recommended projects done, he said.

Though the engineers are just beginning their study, Schiff said they know what some of the potential projects could look like: culvert expansions, bridge enlargements or buyouts of private property to expand areas for water overflow.

In a kickoff meeting with SLR consultants last Thursday, task force members said officials have already considered many of those ideas. Gulka said the owner of Cabot Garage, which sits atop the south tributary bridge, has already signed off on an application for a possible buyout through the state Department of Public Safety.

Task force member Chris Tormey emphasized the group’s interest in looking for solutions upstream.

“When we first started talking about this as a group, we said it would be great if we could somehow, before the water gets to Main Street, find places where we could pull some of it out of the main channel, so we don’t have this bombs-away mass of water,” he told consultants during last week’s meeting.

Schiff, who has worked with other towns such as Jeffersonville on flood resilience, said meaningful action is possible but requires change. He is currently working on 10 or 12 other projects and Cabot is ahead of the curve in attaining grants and searching for solutions, he said.

“Some of the communities that are out in front, like I feel you all are right now, they’ve had citizens or the town just kind of rise up and get really motivated and seek grants,” he said. “There’s money out there to do this work if you put some effort into getting it.”

Down the road, the public will get a chance to learn more about the project at an August public meeting with consultants and the task force, Gulka said. It’ll be an opportunity for residents to offer up their personal experiences with the town’s past floodings, too.