Otterdale Road Drainage Improvements; Investigation of the Disproportionate Access to Stormwater Infrastructure As Climate Change Worsens Stormwater Conditions

The peace of feeling safe at home during a storm or not having travel disrupted for long periods of time after a storm is a luxury not everyone is given. The technical portion of this paper is on a redesign of Otterdale Road in Chesterfield, Virginia that is experiencing flooding. The purpose of the project was to make the area safer for the community by designing hydraulic, roadway, traffic, stormwater, and structural solutions. The STS research paper explores the causes and potential solutions to the inequitable access to high quality stormwater infrastructure in the United States in the context of climate change. The main goal of the research paper is to understand the contributing factors to this sociotechnical issue to guide decision making towards solutions. The Otterdale Road project looks for a technical solution to reduce flooding in a community that needs changes in infrastructure to be safer. The STS Research paper analyzes why certain communities do not have this safe infrastructure in place already. The redesign of Otterdale Road creates a safer roadway with reduced flooding. The approach to designing a safer roadway was by replacing the current double box culverts that are below the roadway at the Otterdale Branch creek crossing with a bridge. Several bridge iterations modeled in hydraulic modeling software ensured the determination of a bridge structure that would withstand a 100 year storm, or a storm event with the probability of happening once every 100 years. Various roadway designs drawn out in CAD software led to the selection of a safe and feasible alignment. After finalizing the design, impacts of the project were mitigated through the design of a stormwater management bioretention garden and traffic maintenance plan during construction. The results of the Otterdale Road project include a new roadway alignment, bridge structure over the Otterdale Branch creek, a bioretention garden, and traffic maintenance plans. The roadway alignment includes a different curvature in the roadway to be safer for travel. The bridge structure passes a 100 year storm. The bioretention garden design treats more than the minimum required amount of phosphorus to meet Virginia quality standards. The traffic maintenance plan will include a detour with clear signage for the community to get where they need to go. These results show major improvements to Otterdale Road through increased safety. The design meets state standards for redevelopment and helps the community. The question posed in the STS research paper is why low income and majority people of color communities in the United States do not have access to proper stormwater infrastructure even as climate change is causing more severe storms and what changes could be made to remedy this. A lack of proper stormwater infrastructure can lead to major flooding issues and safety concerns. To understand the causes and potential solutions to inequitable access to stormwater infrastructure, a literature review of various sources was conducted. The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) framework was used to understand the societal structure that shapes the design and implementation of stormwater infrastructure. The STS paper highlights contributing factors to the issue of inequitable access to stormwater infrastructure that can be understood within the SCOT framework. The social, political, and economic factors identified by the synthesis of several research findings are lingering effects of discriminatory housing practices, unstable government stance on climate change policy, and issues with funding for stormwater infrastructure. Green stormwater infrastructure is a potential solution to this problem, but there are challenges with implementation due to current policies, funding, and public opinions. The findings in this paper can help guide the next steps to address the serious issue impacting the safety of communities.