Drainage contractor in Fishers, IN

Fishers, specifically

A town built fast, on soil that never sped up

Fishers began in 1872, when Salathiel Fisher platted his land into town lots along the rail corridor, a stop that became known as Fishers Switch, straddling Delaware and Fall Creek Townships in southeastern Hamilton County. For most of the next century it stayed a small rail-line farm town. As late as 1960, Fishers had 388 residents. That is not a typo. Three hundred and eighty-eight people, in a place that now holds close to a hundred thousand.

The growth came in one long acceleration. By 1990 Fishers had 9,941 residents. By 2000 it had 39,043, the fastest-growing decade the town has ever recorded. By 2010 it was 76,794, and the 2020 Census counted 99,451, a 166.6 percent increase since 2000 alone. The relocation of SR 37 and its eventual connection to I-69 catalyzed the boom, and development around Geist Reservoir picked up its own pace through the 1980s. Almost everything that makes Fishers look like Fishers today, the subdivisions, the roads, the schools, went in within the working lifetime of people who still live here.

What did not change is the dirt underneath it. Fishers sits on the same Hamilton County glacial till as the rest of the county, dominated by Crosby soil, somewhat poorly drained with a seasonal high water table only 6 to 24 inches down, and Brookston in the low spots, rated very poorly drained. On a modern subdivision lot, that shows up in a specific and irritating way: two houses built close together, both roofs pouring into the narrow side yard between them, and neither downspout with anywhere real to send the water. Clay carrying 35 to 45 percent in the subsoil will not swallow that volume. It sits, and it finds the lowest crack in one foundation or the other instead of a drain that was never designed in.

Geist Reservoir sits on Fishers' southeast edge, 1,890 acres and roughly 6.1 billion gallons, created by damming Fall Creek in 1943 to supply Indianapolis with drinking water. It straddles Fishers, Indianapolis, Lawrence, Fortville and McCordsville, which is part of why high water on Fall Creek is never just one town's problem.

That became obvious this month. Over 11 inches of rain fell east of Indianapolis, and the National Weather Service called part of the event a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall. The White River crested at 23.96 to 24.6 feet, past the 113-year-old record of 23.8 feet set in March 1913. Mayor Scott Fadness declared a local disaster emergency running through 22 August. The city evacuated residents near Wapahani Drive and the Luxhaven area and closed Florida Road between Geist Ridge and Bowline, along with Trails End Drive and Wapahani Drive itself. White River Park, AgriPark, Geist Waterfront Park, Cumberland Park and Hamilton Proper Park all closed. If your property sits anywhere near that stretch, it is worth having your grading and outlet points checked now, while the ground is still settling, rather than waiting for the next storm to point it out for you.

Fishers runs its own Stormwater Division inside Public Works, managing an MS4 program that covers 17,000 storm sewer pipes and 19,000 storm drains, along with construction-site plan review, BMP maintenance, stream restoration, floodplain permitting and street sweeping across 800 lane miles. Residents with a drainage, sump pump, erosion or floodplain concern can report it directly through Fishers Connect or by calling 317-595-3111. Separately, the Hamilton County Surveyor's Office requires a permit before any work crosses or outlets into a regulated drain easement anywhere in the county, Fishers included, and on a town built out this fast, those easements turn up on more lots than most people expect.