City of Columbus outlines Hilltop 4 Blueprint construction, rain gardens and traffic impacts

City of Columbus staff on the Blueprint team explained construction plans for the Hilltop 4 project and described what residents should expect during installation and maintenance.

At a public meeting, Cameron Cure of the City of Columbus said Hilltop 4 will include about 75 right-of-way rain gardens, seven larger regional basins and two permeable-paver streets designed to capture and treat stormwater before it reaches local streams. “This is happening. It's happening right now. I'm very proud to tell you that,” Cure said, noting crews had begun initial survey work the same week.

The project is part of the city’s broader Blueprint program, which Cure said was created in 2015 to address aging sanitary infrastructure and to meet sanitary sewer overflow consent-order obligations. Cure emphasized that Blueprint’s above-ground features—native-plant rain gardens and pervious pavers—treat stormwater, reduce nuisance street flooding and can help calm traffic.

Jeremy Colley, project manager in the city’s Division of Water Reclamation, outlined sequencing and construction impacts. The neighborhood has been divided into four quadrants; contractors plan to start in the northeast quadrant, install rain gardens and plantings first and follow with paver work next summer. Colley said rain-garden construction typically takes three to six weeks from start to finish and that paver sections where crews replace and rebuild a street will be closed to vehicles and parking for roughly nine weeks, though pedestrian access will be maintained.

Colley described several basin types—two-wall, uncurbed, step-out and regional basins—and said siting sought to limit parking impacts by distributing basins across streets. He added the city is responsible for ongoing maintenance: five citywide contractors perform monthly inspections and two follow-up visits (an inspection and a post-maintenance visit) for newly installed basins to handle weeding, mulching, debris removal and occasional sediment checks.

Staff also described the construction method for pervious-paver streets, which includes excavation down about 3–4 feet for layered stone and a pervious concrete subbase; the design is intended to preserve drivability for buses and service vehicles when complete. Where work affects a sidewalk, the city will replace impacted sidewalks.

The team said planting is expected to occur in phases with some work this fall and most plantings completed by next June, and they encouraged residents to sign up for weekly construction updates and to meet the on-site engineers with specific property questions. The city also distributed impact cards and knocked on doors to notify nearby homeowners about timing and parking impacts.

What happens next: staff directed residents with property-specific concerns—narrow alleys, ADA access or cars that must remain available during work—to meet one-on-one with engineers at the open-house stations for site-specific plans and accommodations.