ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – This summer, the city of Albuquerque installed green stormwater infrastructure to help with flooding along roadways. Now, they are opening it up to residents and businesses in the city to benefit from it as well.
“This is part of a larger project to encourage more green stormwater infrastructure,” Dan Mayfield said with the City of Albuquerque Department of Municipal Development. “We’ve had pilot projects built on several different streets in Albuquerque, and now we’re opening it up to residents.”
Along with helping with flooding and ponding, this infrastructure helps reduce watering by using stormwater to irrigate trees and plants along the property. “These kinds of projects are really great because not only do they remove flooding from streets,” Mayfield said. “But they help recharge the Aquaphor better, they remove garbage from the streets, and all your landscaping gets more water.”
People like John Rodriguez with Milagro Concrete Design are on the city’s list of approved contractors to do the work. They do the curb cut, the dug out, and will place rocks and sediment to fill the space if the homeowner doesn’t already have that installed.
“Aside from the curb cutting, we do the xeriscape and landscape application,” Rodriguez said.
The work costs between $400 to 600, depending on the location and what is required. The city is also running an expedited permit process to encourage residents to install these quickly.
“Once submitted, the application time takes between a few days and a week to complete,” Rodriguez said. “So you could potentially have your curb cut installed and completed in a week’s time.”
Streets in neighborhoods with a rock or dirt barrier between the curb and the sidewalk make for the perfect infrastructure to install these cut-outs to help with flooding and ponding. The city says there are a lot of neighborhoods downtown that have the layout that’s ideal for this build. Although no one has taken advantage of this yet, the city hopes they take advantage of the expedited permit process available now.
