COLUMBIA, S.C. — Recent repairs along Gills Creek are aimed at fighting back erosion and protecting the roadways and homes nearby from floodwaters in an area long prone to flash flooding.
According to Columbia Assistant City Manager Clint Shealy, erosion along the banks of Gills Creek next to Old Neck Road had been undermining the storm drain system and threatening homes.
“It started to erode the embankment. We’ve had some heavy rains over the years, and so the bank was starting to wash away. It collapsed the storm drain,” Shealy said.
The road lies near the entrance of Lake Catherine along the creek. It's been vulnerable to flooding, with roads near the creek severely impacted by the 2015 floods.
“We have kind of created with the development within this watershed, a situation that lends itself to flash flooding, when before, we didn’t have that,” said Bailey Parker, the Executive Director of the Gills Creek Watershed Association.
Parker says that development around the area has increased water flow directly into Gills Creek, exacerbating flooding risks.
"When a rain event happens those lakes start to rise, and even when we don't have catastrophic flooding, those folks on that spit of land between the two lakes see flooding in their crawl spaces and in their basement, which can cause very expensive damage to their homes," said Parker.
The recent repairs are just one problem spot on the creek. Crews with the City of Columbia installed riprap cladding, or large stones to protect the bank, and a new storm drain to replace the one destroyed by erosion. The embankment has been reinforced, and the road has been repaved to prevent further erosion.
Shealy says the repairs were completed before Helene and held up well during the heavy rainfall then.