Description:

As part of its responsibilities as the City of Buffalo’s on-call municipal engineer, TOTH analyzed two existing box culverts for possible replacement. These culverts are on a major drainage way as it crosses Jefferson Street and Main Street. Both existing culverts are undersized and cause frequent flooding. TOTH’s analysis included: delineation of drainage areas for the two box culverts, calculating hydraulic capacity of the existing box culverts, sizing replacement box culverts to convey the 25-year return frequency storm, and cost estimating for the replacement box culverts. The analysis concluded that the Jefferson Street box culvert should be replaced with a dual-cell 3-foot by 12-foot box culvert and that the Main Street box culvert should be replaced with a dual-cell 4-foot by 10-foot box culvert. Special consideration had to be given to possible conflicts with existing sanitary sewer infrastructure in the area.

The findings of our analysis were utilized to apply for a FEMA hazard mitigation grant. The application was approved by FEMA and design of the new box culverts began in Fall 2021.