My answer would be, “yes Talbert, we are looking into it, but things are moving very slowly”. We have recruited Jim Ellis, PHD. Jim is a WSU Fulbright Scholar 2000 – 2001 U.S./Japan International Educators Administrators Program. He retired in 2013 as the University of South Alabama Director of International Education. Jim has conducted research about historic cemeteries in Mobile in recent years. Here are some comments from Jim about the recent flow of water during a rain event:
There are two main sources of the runoff – the obvious one is the land that has been cleared for the welcome center construction (and where plans call for a major runoff retention holding area to be built under the parking lot being built which would either hold water from short low volume storms or overflow into the drainage system when there are the repeated heavy storms flows.
The second flow is very obvious from the west and northern aspect of the drainage (coming from the rail road and Africatown Blvd area). All the flow combined to overflow the really heavy duty sediment fencing the contractor installed (the best install that I have seen in Mobile, most do not add the straw bales and if they do, nothing is well anchored). Fortunately the contractor engineers were present and working with the system and along Bay Bridge Cutoff Road to redirect the water that was on the roadway where the road crosses the drain beneath it. There was also substantial water flowing down Bay Bridge Cutoff Road from the Chin Street intersection both on the western and eastern sides – the flow into the cemetery roadway has now for the most part degraded the eastern edge of the roadway to the point that it is a hazard for cars and pedestrians.
The runoff continues to flow heavily into the cemetery from the eastern side of BBCR – and until some form of a diversion system is put in place by the City (or permitted for owners to do) on the ROW shoulders the graveyard alley road way will continue to degrade – along its length and especially the eastern end of the road way through the cemetery. The east end is now a serious hazard to cars in particular with deep erosion cuts on both sides and some are undermining the north east edge where it passes over the outflows from the city system to the intakes to Chin street. Similarly the drainage from the Blvd to the north of the cemetery flows heavily as well and we have seen indications that there have been overflows at the southeastern intakes to the Chin street outflows that feed to three mile creek.
The edges of the road way through the cemetery are soft now as well so hopefully cars will stay off the grass and not get stuck. The best suggestion at this point is to close the cemetery road to all vehicles and make it pedestrian only and roping off the heavily eroded areas to reduce probability of accidents and liabilities.
One conversation from the city traffic div that was shared with the Welcome Center city point of contact (who actually saw and experienced the dangerous truck traffic) – suggested that the BBCR lanes be actually clearly painted/marked to reflect the actual lanes, that was to try and discourage the heavy THRU truck traffic that continues unabated (the trucks simply occupy more that one lane – ie tend to stay in the center (just off center in either direction).
I suggest that engineers from the city of Mobile (Mobile is responsible for the construction of the welcome center), engineers from Mobile County, engineers from The Corps of Engineers, engineers with The Alabama Department of Transportation and members of The Africatown Cemetery Committee begin roundtable discussions about flooding in The Africatown Cemetery and along Cut-Off Road before the Welcome Center Project is complete. Once those meetings are done there should be a meeting with the entire Africatown Community about plans to eliminate flooding in The Historic Africatown Cemetery.
Dr. Major Joe Womack USMCR(ret)
