City of Charlotte Lyon Court Storm Drainage Improvement Project

LaBella performed planning, analysis, and design for a 311-acre urban watershed. The existing neighborhood and commercial area storm drainage systems were experiencing street, yard, and structural flooding. The project involved extensive GIS analysis of existing and proposed storm drainage improvements, as well as existing requests for service.

The mapping efforts included producing GIS exhibits linked to stormwater calculations such that the interface provided dynamic feedback on the size and type of improvements for consideration. Modeling efforts included HEC-1, HEC-RAS, and hydraulic grade line spreadsheets to evaluate system hydrology and hydraulics.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services (CMSWS) partnered with LaBella and other city departments to perform comprehensive capital improvement planning and design phase tasks that ultimately led to construction and implementation of the preferred improvement alternative. The construction phase started in 2019 and the warranty phase concluded at the end of 2023.

The alliance with CMSWS led to the completion of a successful storm drainage improvement project with measurable benefits to the community. Approximately 21,850 feet of drainage system improvements were installed, consisting of storm drainage pipe ranging in size from 15-inch to 54-inch circular pipe, road crossings with box culverts ranging in size from a single 5’x4’ to dual 9’x7’ box culverts (jack and tunnel), natural channel enhancement and stabilization with in-stream structures, planting of the stream banks with native live stakes, and relocation of sanitary sewer, water, and other utilities, within the project limits.

The project had multiple construction packages with aggressive schedules that were delivered on time and on budget.