Sooner and Cambridge Parks
City of Bartlesville, Oklahoma
The City of Bartlesville partnered with Meshek & Associates to complete its citywide master drainage plan. Five years later, the City selected Meshek to complete the construction documents for two recommended detention ponds — Sooner Park and Cambridge Park.
In the master drainage plan, Meshek identified Sooner Park as an ideal location to place a regional detention pond to alleviate flooding immediately downstream.
The project required:
Replacing an existing outlet pipe with a larger reinforced box and outlet structure to control outflow.
Proper sizing, site grading, and positioning of the new tunnel.
Enlarging and deepening the existing pond to create an attractive water feature for public enjoyment.
An existing pedestrian tunnel crossing Madison Avenue was low enough to act as an additional stormwater outlet, thereby eliminating any stormwater detention that may have existed behind the roadway fill. In addition to the drainage design challenges, Madison Avenue is a major arterial street which was required to remain open during construction. By phasing construction and creating a detour within the City’s right-of-way, Madison Avenue remained available to the public for the duration of the project. The existing trail system up to and through the pedestrian tunnel under Madison Avenue had to be redesigned in order to be ADA compliant, and now Sooner Park is heavily utilized by citizens for recreation.
Another detention pond recommended in the master drainage plan, Cambridge Park Pond, consisted of design improvements to an area previously constructed as a stormwater detention facility that had never performed adequately. As a part of the project, Meshek designed a 600-foot-long vertical wall channel from an upstream developed area to convey flows to the newly constructed stormwater detention facility, providing additional flood storage to the detention pond and improving grading to allow for easier maintenance.
