Roanoke is a historic stream that flows up First Street between Salem Avenue and Campbell Avenue with a stormwater project that aims to reduce flooding.
Downtown Roanoke is home to businesses and more than 2,500 residents. But before the streets were paved, the area was also home to two creeks – Trout Run and Lick Run. The creeks are still there, running through a series of tunnels and culverts beneath the pavement. That’s why downtown still floods on a fairly regular basis.
“When we think about the question of why does downtown flood, one of the main reasons is it’s a lowland at the confluence of two streams, and there’s an old salt marsh essentially underneath it,” says Marcus Aguilar, a civil engineer in the city of Roanoke’s stormwater division…