ChastainSkillman | DCCM developed an award-winning design and played a key role in a major city redevelopment initiative for the City of Auburndale. The firm was selected to provide engineering and surveying services for roadway improvements along Pilaklakaha Avenue (PK Avenue) — a 3,500-linear-foot corridor serving as a gateway to downtown.

The project scope included watershed planning, conceptual design, feasibility analysis, and cooperative funding support. The City’s goals were multifaceted: to resolve chronic roadway flooding, improve stormwater runoff quality within the highly urbanized 261-acre drainage basin, enhance neighborhood aesthetics, and introduce pedestrian-friendly amenities.

The recommended concept reimagined PK Avenue by reducing the roadway from four lanes to two and incorporating a series of low-impact design strategies. These included bio-retention swales, on-street pervious parking with subsurface storage, and a one-acre retention pond. ChastainSkillman | DCCM also provided land surveying services and successfully assisted the City in securing $1.3 million in cooperative funding from the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD).

Additional specialized services provided by ChastainSkillman | DCCM included:

• Land acquisition support for a 1.2-acre parcel from CSX
• Coordination with SWFWMD for the Cooperative Funding Initiative (CFI) agreement
• Pedestrian facility and lighting design
• Design of a 12-inch water force main
• Permitting support for milling and resurfacing within CSX rights-of-way
• Advanced hydrologic and hydraulic (H&H) and pollutant load modeling using GIS/ICPR v4, incorporating NEXRAD radar rainfall data to simulate conditions from 1991 to 2015

This project won the 2019 Grand Award for Engineering Excellence in the Water and Stormwater category from the American Council of Engineering Consultants (ACEC-FL) and the 2019 Award of Merit from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA-FL).