It may not look as dramatic as the Broad Branch Road flooding we showed you last summer, but the road also floods where the daylighted portion of the stream passes through a pipe underneath the roadbed.
Map from DOEE’s condition assessment report.
Cecelia Lane, watershed specialist at the DC Department of Energy and the Environment, was at ANC 3F’s February 19th meeting to talk about a plan for this section.
The stream backs up here, a culvert located across from an entrance to the Ingleside at Rock Creek retirement community.
Under here is a pipe that transports Broad Branch Stream to where it once again emerges above ground, on the northbound side of Broad Branch Road. The pipe, 36 inches in diameter, is too narrow to handle the stream when it’s swollen by stormwater.
The project is in the procurement phase for design plans. After the design is completed, there will be another procurement process for the construction. Lane said DOEE wants to deal with the flooding as quickly as possible, and she will return to ANC 3F to ask for a resolution of support for an emergency procurement process to expedite the building of this pipe extension.
DOEE provided a report on the condition of the culvert and recommendations. Read it here.