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North Woods Project
Phase Two of North Woods Project Construction Underway June 2023
The second phase of the North Woods Project has begun. This project will include the creation of three rain gardens to improve water quality in Cobbs Creek and Lake Avondale as well as an ADA-accessible slate nature trail.
For your safety, please stay out of the North Woods which is an active construction site. The path around the lake remains open for everyone to enjoy.
Community members will notice large equipment, the clearing of underbrush, and tree removal as the project construction begins to stabilize the impaired headwaters and bank of Cobbs Creek and create the rain gardens and path. Work is scheduled to continue through the fall on this important stormwater project.
The trees being removed were reviewed by multiple arborists. Many of the trees being taken down were identified as diseased or in poor health. Some of the downed trees will be repurposed in the construction of the rain gardens.
When the rain gardens are installed, more than a hundred native trees, shrubs and perennials will be added to the North Woods.
North Woods Project Overview
The North Woods at Lake Avondale Project is a stormwater mitigation project to prevent erosion in the North Woods and to reduce sediment and pollutants in Lake Avondale. The project uses green infrastructure features that will slow and filter stormwater entering the North Woods from Berkeley Road and provide visual enhancement. Paths and an accessible trail within the North Woods will provide educational and passive recreation opportunities for citizens and visitors to enjoy this treasured resource. The project is funded in part by a grant from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Land, Water. and Conservation Fund (LWCF).
If you have visited the North Woods at Lake Avondale recently, you may have noticed the white and pink tags hanging from branches of understory trees. Additionally, every large tree has a shiny blue medallion on its trunk, with a number that corresponds to a tree inventory to document the size, tree species, and condition of the tree.
Long Engineering (Long) and Lord Aeck Sargent (LAS), the engineering and design consultant team for the project, recently completed topographic and wetland surveys, as well as an extensive tree survey of the Northwoods. The surveys, particularly the inventory of large trees, will inform the design and placement of trails and green infrastructure facilities for slowing and filtering stormwater before entering Lake Avondale, to be the least impactful to our trees. The city’s LWCF grant from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GA DNR) will help fund the construction of the project scheduled to begin in mid-June 2021. The consultant team presented their design plans at an upcoming information session, via Zoom, on March 16, 2021. Watch a replay of this presentation below. Download the presentation here.
A topographic survey of the area bounded between Berkeley Road and the Boy Scouts building was completed on January 15, 2021. Included in the survey are the delineated states waters and jurisdictional waters regulated by the US Army Corps of Engineers, this includes all wetlands within the proposed site. The tree survey of all trees 6” and above was completed on February 5, 2021. The tree survey includes the size, species, and condition of the tree. The amount of stormwater water entering the proposed site through the existing inlets on Berkeley Road has been calculated and used to size the surface area of the proposed rain gardens. These rain gardens will clean the water of any suspended solids before releasing the water into the lake. Currently, the design team is looking at different pond configurations to minimize impact to the existing trees and integrate into the surrounding esthetics.