INDIANAPOLIS — The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Indiana is among the states slotted to receive a portion of $3 billion in federal funds to support projects designed to help city systems become more resilient against climate change and extreme weather events.
Funds totaling $122 million are being sent to FEMA Region 5 states, including Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. The funds were granted through the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities national competition.
In Indiana, the funds will be used for the Mars Hill Flood Control Improvement District Project, a flood control infrastructure project in Indianapolis that plans to use three green infrastructure solutions and one structural infrastructure solution to mitigate flooding for nearby residents, according to FEMA.
Proposed improvements that will be part of the project will include reducing discharge from upstream of the Sam Jones Expressway, expanding the State Ditch to a two-stage ditch, and widening the Kentucky Avenue bridge opening.
Project components include restructuring a ditch, restoring the waterway to a natural vegetated state, nature-based stabilization of impaired banks, and upsizing a bridge, according to documents from the Indianapolis Department of Public Works.
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio received selections for the first time.
In total, the selections include $1.8 billion for critical resilience projects funded by the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities national competition, and an additional $642 million for Flood Mitigation Assistance community-scale flood mitigation projects. These selections build on $160 million in BRIC and FMA selections that FEMA announced in May.
“FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities or BRIC program continues to shift the focus from reactive disaster spending toward proactive investment in community resilience,” said Tom Sivak, regional administrator of FEMA Region 5, in a statement.
The top five primary hazard sources of the projects selected in the national competition for each program include flooding, infrastructure failure, fire, drought and dam or levee break hazards.
Five tribal nations, including Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, and Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin received selections for more than $10 million.
Funds will help assist projects across the Midwest including:
- Illinois: City of Harvey Stormwater Management Project
- This project will address flooding in the city of Harvey, a community of Cook County, by building a new storm sewer to separate the combined sewer system. This project also incorporates the use of nature-based solutions through a detention basin that will help with stormwater runoff and help promote water quality for the city.
- Michigan: City of Detroit - Jefferson Chalmers Implementation
- This infrastructure project will replace approximately 18,800 feet of combined sewer mains within the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood to increase the level of service to meet expected impact from a 10-year, one-hour storm event.
- Michigan: City of Hamtramck - Phase 1B Sewer Relief Construction
- This project will consist of the construction of two new relief sewers and is a continuation of Phase 1A of a similar project in 2016 to upsize the sewer system and alleviate basement back-up and urban flooding in high rain events for the city of Hamtramck.
- Minnesota: City of Lamberton Community Safe Room
- This project will construct a community safe room in Lamberton, Minnesota, to provide life safety to individuals in the city of Lamberton and students at Red Rock Central Public Schools.
- Ohio: Mineral Ridge Dam Resiliency Upgrades and Source Water Protection
- This project will improve the resiliency of the Mineral Ridge Dam in Ohio by improving spillways, and the toe drainage system, and flattening slopes around the dam. By improving the resilience of the dam and surrounding infrastructure, this project will protect the drinking water created by the dam’s reservoir.
Illinois and Ohio received Flood Mitigation Assistance selections for a total of $44 million, according to FEMA.
