Flood Protection & Resiliency Study of Columbia Point

Using a grant from FEMA, the City of Columbia retained Weston & Sampson as their prime consultant to conduct a geotechnical, climate resiliency, and flood protection study to evaluate alternative methods to protect their WWTP, its planned expansion, and its supply route from flood conditions.

Our study involved inspection of the existing levee, regional hydraulic and hydrologic analyses, breach analyses, subsurface explorations, and stability and seepage analyses for the existing levee in future flood conditions. Due to the high flood levels expected for the area, our recommendations included a new ring levee around the WWTP, raising the existing supply route to the facility, and building a new bridge off the highway as a secondary supply route. The study will provide the city with a series of solid, science-based recommendations for next steps to be undertaken to help protect this currently vulnerable infrastructure from flooding.