The City of Falls Church is a highly dense and urban municipality in Northern Virginia. Like many of its neighbors, flash floods in recent years have resulted in residents demanding increased focus on resiliency and flood mitigation to protect their homes from flooding. In response, the City has undergone extensive flood modeling efforts in several watersheds to more accurately map present day flood risk outside of the FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area.

Lincoln Avenue is a roadway which runs from North West Street within Falls Church to the Arlington County Boundary. This road runs parallel to the W&OD trail, and has experienced repetitive flooding over the years. With support of ARPA funds, the City identified Lincoln Avenue as an opportunity to implement stormwater management improvements and pedestrian improvements as part of a hybrid public infrastructure project.

In support of this effort, Kimley-Horn assisted the City in data collection and development of a 1D/2D PCSWMM model to look at flooding across 250 acres between the Trammel Branch and Coe Branch watersheds. Kimley-Horn worked with the City to summarize resident feedback, identify target level of service goals, and evaluate preferred green infrastructure and detention approaches for flood mitigation and water quality. Proposed condition modeling was then completed to identify key projects which would ultimately result in a flood free watershed north of the W&OD trail. This presentation will go over the project from data collection through proposed concept planning, and outline the challenges and opportunities encountered in achieving a flood free Lincoln Avenue.