Stantec has been hired to do the engineering for the Sherman Avenue drainage project in the Kings community.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Monday authorized Mayor George Flaggs Jr. to sign an agreement with the engineering firm not to exceed $74,500 to do the preparations for the project, which is funded in part by a Natural Resources Conservation Service grant. The grant will cover about $495,008 of the project’s estimated $645,010 cost, with the city paying $150,002.

Flaggs said the city’s share will come from the $1 million in capital fund money set aside for improvements in Kings. The drainage project, he said, was one of the projects requested by the residents.

According to the agreement, Stantec will perform a topographic survey of the area, prepare the design, plans and specifications to bid the project, perform onsite inspection of the construction and prepare an operations and maintenance plan for the improvements.

“That’s going to be a tough project, mainly because there’s so many trees you’re going to have to take out,” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said. “That’s timely by itself, because you’re talking about three or four different crews working.

“The money’s there now, and hopefully we won’t have put an addition or amendment on it (the project), but when you start cutting trees, you never know what’s going to show up,” he said.

Because of the extent and complexity of the project, Mayfield said it is hard to estimate how long the project will take to complete.

“You don’t know what you’re going to run into. You’ve got houses, you’ve got the (Sherman Avenue) ball park you have to cut into, you’ve got to cut trees, you’re going to have to run drains; it’s going to be a seriously involved project, but it’s going to do a whole lot of good because it’s going to help us.”

When the NRCS grant was announced in June, Mayfield said the project will start on the north side of Sherman Avenue Park at Sherman and Union avenues, go around the back of Union and include a hillside that has serious erosion problems.

The Kings community has been plagued with problems caused by water and mud coming off properties east of North Washington Street and clogging drains and culverts with mud, and causing storm water to back up and flood North Washington and Kings.

Mayfield said the plans for the project call for a new drainage channel that will be lined with riprap, a loose stone used to line the banks of the drainage areas to prevent erosion.