One of only nine communities statewide recognized this year, the City of Brunswick was selected as a recipient of the 2026 Visionary City Awards by the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) for the Lanier Boulevard Flood Resiliency Project.

The Visionary City Award recognize cities that transform strategic planning into tangible outcomes across areas like flood mitigation, land conservation, youth entrepreneurship and public safety. The City of Brunswick earned recognition for its proactive, comprehensive approach to tackling coastal flooding, high-tide impacts, stormwater runoff and rising sea levels.

In an effort to alleviate compound flooding in the Lanier Blvd area – currently occurring more than a dozen times a year – Goodwyn Mills Cawood (GMC) was selected to conduct site assessments and complete preliminary design under the Engineering Services Contract.

“With the City of Brunswick being very proactive and engaged with resiliency planning and innovate stormwater management approaches, I was excited to hear they received this award,” GMC Senior Water Resources Engineer Rob Brown explains. “This has been a very interesting and complex project, utilizing multiple design strategies to address compound flooding from both high tides and stormwater runoff in the southeastern corner of Brunswick. 

Project elements included tide control; green infrastructure retrofits at Glynn Middle School; neighborhood drainage and flow connectivity improvements; roadway elevation in critical areas; and a new constructed stormwater wetland.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunities that the constructed stormwater wetland and green infrastructure retrofits will offer to the middle school science classes to serve as an outdoor classroom for the children in Glynn County, including my own kids in a few years, to learn about stormwater, water quality, and the environment,” says Rob.

Due to the low-lying coastal area, the design factored in sea level rise projections to ensure infrastructure remains resilient and functional for the next 50+ years. The initial phase of assessment, planning and preliminary design was funded through a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) grant. An adjacent drainage basin to the north that flows under Lanier Blvd was assessed in tandem and conceptual designs were developed for green infrastructure retrofits and drainage improvements through a FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant.

For both grants, GMC developed a hydrologic and hydraulic (H&H) model utilizing Streamline Technologies’ StormWise 1D modeling software to design drainage improvements. Services including survey, geotechnical engineering, stormwater and roadway engineering design, permitting recommendations, landscape renderings, public engagement and grant support were provided as part of the NFWF project. Final design and permitting are currently underway. 

GMC worked with the City and Georgia DNR-Coastal Resources Division to secure grant funding from three sources to take the various project elements to final design and submit permits – Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP), Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Coastal Incentive Grant (CIG).

In order to keep this phased project progressing towards implementation, while minimizing the overall cost to the City, GMC worked closely with the City to prepare a $10 million grant application to FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance program, which is currently under review.