The city of Conway, SC, utilizing Federal Emergency Management Agency funding, bought the flood-prone properties, tore down the homes and laid plans for an innovative flood mitigation project — a man-made Carolina Bay. The work got started with a dedication ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 15.
Conway SC will do in a few months what it took nature centuries to do create an artificial wetland mimicking a Carolina Bay to filter contaminents and reduce flooding.
Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette designated Conway as the inaugural South Carolina Trail Town on July 17. The Trail Towns program encourages communities to offer outdoor recreation opportunities such as hiking, biking and kayaking. It s part of the S.C. National Heritage Corridor, one of the National Park Service’s National Heritage Areas designated by Congress.
City of Conway officials believe their $2 million multiyear project, designed to reduce flooding in the area near Trinity United Methodist Church, could become a model for other communities.
Conway City Council voted recently to move ahead with the project that city officials have whittled down from an estimated $2.4 million to somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million, according to Deputy City Administrator/Grants Coordinator John Rogers.
At a recent meeting, council members voted unanimously to seek a grant from the Building Resilient Infrastructure in Communities (BRIC) program to allow engineers, Robinson Design Engineers, (RDE) to complete its plan designed to mimic a Carolina Bay, the naturally-occurring elliptical depressions that sometimes include rare foliage and help prevent flooding.