The city has completed the selection of eight sites for drainage improvements funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.

Two other sites are listed as “additive alternatives.”

Although the city originally planned to concentrate ARPA drainage spending on the north side, the plan the council approved Tuesday calls for sites on both the north and south sides.

During a press conference at City Hall on Wednesday, Deputy Mayor and Second District Councilman Joseph Mickens attributed the change to recommendations from Waggoner Engineering, the company charged with overseeing the construction.

“We went along with their opinion on where it should go,” Mickens said. “When they started reviewing, … they found that some of these areas were worse than some of the areas we had identified. When they pointed that out to us, we revised some of the locations.”

Mickens chaired Tuesday’s council meeting and Wednesday’s press conference as a representative for Mayor Keith Gaskin, who is ill.

Wagoner conducted a video survey of the city’s underground sewer system beginning in March. Jim Brigham, the city’s chief financial officer, said the survey revealed areas of broken clay tile pipes on the south side.

Locations selected for drainage improvement work include: 18th Street North; 18th Street and 12th Avenue North; Seventh Avenue and 17th Street North; Bel Avenue; Fifth Avenue South; 15th Street and Seventh Avenue South; South Columbus Ditch, and 15th Street and Fourth Avenue North.

Waggoner estimates the work will cost about $4.56 million. That price is “right on track,” Brigham said, and the engineering firm can now move forward with bidding the job out to contractors.

The city has nearly $6 million in ARPA and state grants, as well as $190,000 in other federal funds, earmarked for work in the watershed, Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett told The Dispatch.

Waggoner made two possible additional recommendations if the city budget allows: $1.25 million for 23rd Street North and $1.53 million for College Street.

“The hope is that bids will be lower than expected,” Garrett said. “Then one or both alternatives can be added.”

The city also accepted a grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in July to clean and line with concrete an earthen trench that runs along the east side of Columbus Brick and build a retention pond to capture water that currently floods parts of 21st, 22nd and 23rd streets and 23rd Avenue North. The grant will cover 75% of the cost of the nearly $4 million project, with the city needing to raise just under $1 million.

Zack Plair is the managing editor of The Dispatch.