Heights Road experiences frequent flooding due to an undersized culvert. Fuss & O’Neill assisted the Town to obtain a CIRCA grant for the design and permitting of flood mitigation on Heights Road and the commercial area adjacent to the Noroton Heights train station and accompanying parking lot. This project used Low Impact Development (LID) design principles to mitigate flooding.

The project design features subsurface stormwater infiltration to reduce runoff volumes and peak rates of runoff to the existing under-sized drainage system, enhancing the flood resilience of the existing system to current and projected future intense storms. The project included development of a Design Guidance Checklist that will have application to the design of stormwater infiltration systems in developed areas of Connecticut with urban soils. Use of stormwater infiltration in areas of urban soils, which are typically characterized by low levels of contaminants, can be challenging given the sometimes conflicting technical and regulatory requirements.