Kenney’s Run Floodplain Mitigation

Project Overview

Molson Coors Brewing Company and the City of Golden worked together to restore a quarter-mile of Kenney’s Run that had been underground in a series of culverts and pipes installed over the last 150 years.  ICON Engineering led a multi-disciplinary team through planning and design of an open channel with 100-year flood capacity.  The resulting flood risk mitigation allows for a modernization of the brewery that removes over 12 acres of industrial facility and approximately 5 acres of downtown business district from 1 to 3 feet of flood depth.  ICON worked through a plan that provides a balanced retrofit of existing parking lots and industrial land into a natural armor stone bottom channel with two roadway crossings, two pedestrian crossings, improved low flow trail access and protection of existing irrigation ditch headworks.  This project is a $10M investment in restoring a key element of stormwater conveyance through the City of Golden.

Project Outcomes

• 1/4 mile of Kenney’s Run was restored to natural channel design
• Flood risk mitigation removed over 17 total acres from 1-3 feeet of flood depth
• Retrofitted a parking lot on MolsonCoors’ property
• Improved low flow trail access