MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - A Tennessee town is building a new floodway intended to channel rising waters away from neighborhoods and a naval base while providing a recreation area for residents.
Millington is poised to begin purchasing property for the roughly 1200-acre (486-hectare) Big Creek Wetland and Recreation Area, which will include trails, soccer fields and outdoor classrooms, the Commercial Appeal reports.
Flooding in Millington in 2010 forced more than 1,500 rescues and caused millions in damage to the Naval Support Activity Mid-South. A year later, while the town was still recovering, a second flood caused more evacuations and millions more in damages.
Once the floodway is built it will act as a detention basin for water, said Tom Needham the former director of public works for Shelby County who is now helping with the floodway project.
“We hope to have an area there that can be used for primitive camping for the Scouts,” Needham said. “We hope to have an educational area there that can be used to bring school kids in and do some education on the environment.”
One portion of the site is already a Tennessee Department of Transportation wetland. That area will be mostly preserved in its natural state but will include boardwalk trails.
The project is expected to cost $39 million, to be paid for with a combination of grant money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and funding from the state. It is expected to be completed by September 2022.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris told the paper it is essential to protect Shelby County residents from flooding.
“With this investment, we are planning to make room for the river surges that cause the flooding,” Harris said.
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