When storms hit and waters flow in Barrie, residents should no longer be flooded with worries.
Kidd’s Creek is now ready to withstand that 100-year storm, as the culvert replacement project near Barrie’s Dunlop Street West was officially unearthed Thursday.
“When we get a summer thunderstorm, it comes down here pretty good,” said Nathanael Couperus, engineering project manager. “We don’t know what storms are coming, but this will mitigate the impact.”
The city and Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) staff collaborated on this project to create an open channel creek designed to drastically reduce flooding.
“As a result of this work, we won’t see flooding of Dunlop Street like we have in the past, which ultimately protects public safety and property and helps to improve water quality in Lake Simcoe,” said Mayor Jeff Lehman.
“This is one of those unassuming municipal projects that is so incredibly important to our city," said the mayor. “The sad reality is we are seeing 100-year storms more than every 100 years.”
The improvements are a new wider, naturalized open channel between Eccles and Bradford streets, and wider culverts at Dunlop Street and Bradford Street. This will increase the amount of stormwater that can flow through this area and thereby reduce flooding at this location, say officials.
Before these improvements, the stormwater infrastructure consisted of an open channel, a stormwater pipe and culverts between Eccles Street and Bradford Street.
This project carries a $24.4-million cost. That breaks down to $14 million for road, watermain and sanitary sewer infrastructure, along with $10.4 million in stormwater infrastructure.
Grants from the federal government, through the National Disaster Mitigation Program, totalled $3.5 million to help cover the costs of the property and natural disaster mitigation measures.
“When we naturalize areas, we improve them,” said Kenneth Cheney, engineering director with LSRCA. “It will deliver on reduced flooding, improved wildlife habitat, a more beautiful view and a healthier Lake Simcoe watershed for us all.”
This project, which began in 2020, included the demolition of prominent buildings such as Knights Inn, Sticky Fingers and the Fisher Auditorium.
In addition to creek realignment and new open channel construction on the north and south sides of Dunlop, the work includes sewer and watermain relocations and replacements on Dunlop Street from east of Eccles to Toronto Street, and on High and Bradford streets from Dunlop to north of Simcoe Street.
There are also new larger concrete culverts under Dunlop and Bradford streets, along with road reconstruction and restoration within the project limits on Dunlop and Bradford streets.
This section of Kidd’s Creek is day-lighted north of Dunlop Street West, and between Dunlop and High streets. The open watercourse solution also has significant environmental benefits.
The Kidd’s Creek open channel incorporates low-impact design drainage works and features green infrastructure best practices to improve local stormwater management.
“As mayor you get to do some cool things,” said Lehman. “Nothing comes close to opening a culvert.
“But it’s a lot more than a pipe in the ground. It’s a re-engineering of the area.”
This project’s capacity is based on the Hurricane Hazel storm, so a storm greater than the once-in-a-century event.
The remnants of Hurricane Hazel blew into southern Ontario on Oct. 15, 1954. One life was lost and about 3,000 people were displaced by the flooding, as people were forced to leave property and possessions behind.
