Title
Resolution to Approve Professional Services Agreement with Environmental Consulting & Technology, Inc. for Management of Millers Creek Sediment Accumulation Study (RFP No. 812; $46,026.00)
Memorandum
Millers Creek, located in the northeast portion of the City of Ann Arbor, has a 2.4 square mile watershed and is the smallest named tributary to the Huron River. In 2002, work on a study of the Millers Creek watershed began as a result of flooding and bank erosion on Pfizer’s Ann Arbor campus (now University of Michigan property). The study resulted in the creation of the Millers Creek Improvement Plan.
The 2004 Millers Creek Improvement Plan mostly focuses on recommendations to reduce flow and erosion within the entire watershed such as bank stabilization, private detention basins, tree plantings, and paving of several gravel parking lots and roads. Very few of the recommendation indicate what to do with the sediment in the lower reach of the creek where the stream slope flattens out and allows the sediment to accumulate.
Recently, within the Ruthven Nature Area, the course of Millers Creek has changed its location. Extremely flashy flows and a steep creek bed in the upper reaches of Millers Creek have caused a large amount of sediment to be deposited within the creek’s original channel in the lower reach of Millers Creek. Due to the large amount of sediment accumulation within the creek, flow is being diverted from its usual path north of the Ruthven kame to enter the Huron River through an alternate route down the west side of the kame. This pathway diverts flow away from the intended 60-inch culvert under Geddes Road westward to enter an alternative 24-inch culvert under Geddes Road. The increased flow through the 24-inch culvert has caused flooding along Geddes Road. The flooding has been extensive enough to overtop Geddes Road at least six times in the last two years. Three of those instances caused the City to temporarily close Geddes Road....
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