Drain Establishment and Improvement Project Works to Solve Decades-Old Erosion Issues in Mecosta County
Big Rapids, MI – Construction on a drain establishment and improvement project near the campus of Ferris State University is nearing completion. This project, which transforms a severely eroded natural watercourse into a maintainable county drain, will help mend and mitigate decades worth of erosion in a Big Rapids residential neighborhood.
Ives Drain During Inspection
Since the 1950’s, the City of Big Rapids – like many municipalities – has grown from a small town with open pastures, and agricultural land, into a full community with a bustling downtown. One of Michigan’s top higher education institutions, Ferris State University, calls Big Rapids home and welcomes thousands of students to its campus every year.
A natural watercourse that empties into the Muskegon River existed along what is now the city’s east side, between the river and Ives Avenue. As the area was developed, increased stormwater runoff from the watershed to the watercourse occurred, increasing the energy to the stream, and resulting in erosion issues.
“As Ferris State, Big Rapids Charter Township, and the City of Big Rapids developed with minimal stormwater detention installed, the increased urbanization of the watershed and increased runoff to the channel also increased the energy of the water that was entering into the natural stream bed,” Spicer Group Project Manager Charles Smith, P.E. said.
Ives Drain During Construction
“Over time, these erosion issues along the stream banks became more severe,” Smith said. “Busloads of sediment were deposited in the stream and tangles of deadfall fell throughout its path.”
Portions of the stream were severely eroded enough that landowners were in fear of losing their homes and outbuildings. In the early 2000’s, bank erosion threatened the integrity of city infrastructure by exposing underground sanitary sewer infrastructure, which was relocated away from the erosion. Since then, the relocated sanitary sewer mainline had become exposed once more due to further erosion. The fast-moving water was also carrying loads of sediment from the eroding channel to the Muskegon River, causing increased loads of phosphorus and nutrients to be deposited there and a delta to be formed.
The city applied smaller fixes throughout the years, but as a natural watercourse, there was no established entity to remedy the erosion issue and no method of funding any major improvement project. Private landowners were self-stabilizing stream banks in an effort to protect their properties where they could.
In 2016, the City of Big Rapids hired Spicer Group to conduct a preliminary study and maintenance inspection of the watercourse. In 2019, landowners petitioned the Mecosta County Drain Commissioner, and the Ives Drain was formally established under the Michigan Drain Code. This allowed a drainage district to be established and an assessment district to be established to assist with funding improvements to the drain.
The Mecosta County Drain Commissioner hired the team of Spicer Group, Streamside Ecological and Fahey Schultz Burzych Rhodes to assist with establishing the drainage district, acquiring the necessary easements and permits, and design improvements to the newly established drain.
Smith said that several options for drain improvements were explored. The team knew the water entering the drain needed to be slowed down and the option of detaining water, or storing it, was not readily available as the watershed had been built out. “We could store water, but the amount of water we would need to store to lower the velocities to be non-erosive was substantial. We would need to utilize a lot of land,” he said. “The storage needed at the downstream outlet was so substantial that it would’ve created a football-field-size of a detention pond.”
As that amount of land was not available, the team designed a project that conveyed the water at safe velocities in a stabilized channel from the end of an established 84-inch enclosed storm sewer pipe at Ives Avenue to the Muskegon River.
Spicer Group Project Engineer Brandon Williams, E.I.T., said the design of the newly established drain included it being subdivided into sections of riffles and pools. The rocks and rip rap within the stream bed will help dissipate energy, and rock headers will help channel the water to the center, where it is deeper and keep the water away from the banks to prevent erosion. Wood and rock cross vanes made up of logs and/or riprap will also be installed to help control the grade and elevation of the drain to help dissipate energy, slow the water down, and redirect water to the main flow in the center of the channel.
Aaron Snell, with Streamside Ecological Services, assisted with the design elements of the drain.
“This design is unique because there is such a change in elevation from the outlet pipe to the Muskegon River over about a half mile and between the extreme slope and the sandy soils, stabilization was a real challenge,” Snell said. “This is a very high-energy stream during and after a runoff event. Naturally, a steep stream with little floodplain access relies on roughness to dissipate energy. Roughness being in the form of large, resistant rock, large woody debris, deep pools, and heavily vegetated stream banks. Most of these elements we were able to construct, with the vegetation just taking some time to grow and mature.”
Jackson Dirt Works, a contractor based in Lake Odessa, was hired for the construction work – including shipping in more than 6,000 tons of rock and rip rap from Wisconsin when local supplies were diminished to be used in the drain design.
Construction began in April of this year and is scheduled for significant completion later this fall, with only a small amount of punch list items to be completed in the spring of 2024.
As construction has been moving along, Karla Miller, Mecosta County Drain Commissioner, said the project has been well received by the public and residents surrounding the drain.
“I think we have a project here the likes of which my community hasn’t seen before,” Miller said. “People are amazed and couldn’t believe how bad it was because they couldn’t see it all. But now that they can see it, and see the restoration, they see how good it looks and how beautiful it is turning out.”
