In our ongoing Brush Creek and Rock Creek at KCCC Supplemental Flood Study underway for the City of Mission Hills, WRS is following up on a USACE flood study with a supplemental study that looks at planned improvements to a municipal golf course bordering the original study area. WRS is examining alternative design changes to the stream planform and geometry; road, stream, and bridge interactions; and other flood prevention and mitigation solutions. It will evaluate the flooding impact at various flood-return intervals and quantify the cost and benefit of each. Once complete, the city will use the study to acquire design and construction funding.

The project involved one of about a dozen physical laboratory models WRS has built in its 12-year history. This one, built to study the confluence of Brush and Rock Creek in Mission Hills, KS and consisted of a rigid scale model, with gravel streambed. 
Water Resources Solutions partnered with the city of Mission Hills and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a planning level hydraulic analysis of the of Brush Creek and Rock Creek.
The Belinder Avenue low-water crossing routinely floods and the crossing becomes a safety hazard when overtopped and must be closed by the city’s emergency response personnel, such as police officers. In addition, the backwater effect of the confluence of these two streams at this location causes street and home flooding in the adjacent City of Fairway, Kansas.
A physical hydraulic model and a numerical 2D HEC-RAS model were created to investigate existing conditions as well as potential alleviative alternatives. Three alternatives were evaluated to mitigate flooding at the low-water crossing and the streets and homes upstream of the confluence. The alternatives included:
Buyout option
Removal of the low water crossing
Removal of the low water crossing with a State Park Road raise.
Following review of the alternatives by the city and an extensive public involvement campaign, it was decided by the city to pursue additional alternative solutions that may be funded by non-USACE sources. The city again involved WRS to conduct a supplemental study, currently underway, to investigate the cost and benefits of physical channel changes and bridges to replace the low-water crossing for several different return interval flood events. Using background data and additional available information from the previous flood study of the area by the KC-USACE, WRS will conduct 2D HEC-RAS modeling to evaluate the flood elevation and hydraulics of the alternative channel options at several flood return intervals.
The project involves close consultation with the nearby Kansas City Country Club, as it is in the process of renovating its golf course, which may complicate design solutions as well as present opportunities for flood prevention. WRS is in regular meetings with the city and the country club to analyze possible revisions in the course layout and to evaluate whether the changes would reduce flooding to the course. This reduction in flooding would also benefit the city’s and the nearby City of Fairway’s streets and properties adjacent to the creek.