We’re making strong progress in addressing flooding concerns in the 4th District and across the city … even if there are no quick fixes or silver-bullet solutions.
City Engineer Kyle Vandercar is sending residents in the Parkway Drive area an update on what’s being done to address issues with the stormwater and sanitary sewer systems.
You can see the whole letter here.
You’ll recall that following the July 22 storms, the city contracted with engineering consultant R.A. Smith National to analyze the storm sewer system in the Parkway Heights area and find solutions to ongoing flooding problems there. We also contracted with Applied Technologies to evaluate the sanitary sewer system in certain areas of the city and make recommendations to reduce “inflow” into the sanitary system and increase capacity.
The Parkway Heights storm sewer study is complete, and you can see the full report at City Hall. It includes several alternatives to ease flooding in and around two especially hard-hit areas — the 500 block of Parkway Drive and 17th Avenue south of Oak Street.
In both places, water is essentially funneling from large sections of the northwest side of town and overburdening the storm sewer infrastructure during larger storms. The fixes involve adding capacity … essentially widening the bottom of that funnel.
- On Parkway Drive, the staff-recommended option is to build a 36-inch-diameter relief storm sewer between 521 and 531 Parkway, with a new outlet to Oak Creek Parkway.
- On 17th Avenue, the recommended option is to build a secondary, overland drainage path in addition to the existing pipe system to reduce flooding.
Neither option is set in stone and will require approval by the City Council. And neither option is cheap.
For now, 4th District and Parkway Heights residents should expect to see survey workers in the area before the end of the year, weather permitting. That will be followed by design and preparation of construction plans. I’ll keep you posted as this moves forward.
Meanwhile, the sanitary study work continues across the city, and a final report is not expected until March. The fixes here are more complex, and likely even more costly — including addressing inflow, lift station capacity, emergency relief station pump capacity and pipe design.
Keep in mind that any storm sewer work (like the Parkway Heights options) would also help reduce basement sewer backups, in addition to helping prevent water from flooding streets, spilling over curbs and into front lawns.
I say “help” because it’s become clear to me in the past year that there are no 100 percent fixes here. As Kyle puts it in the letter, “unlimited capacity to the storm and sanitary sewer systems cannot be cost effectively engineered.” Instead, we’re working to identify “improvements which will greatly reduce the chance of flooding and the potential for sewer backups.”
Obviously, the issue quickly becomes how much money it will take to truly make an impact. Most of these are not small projects. The recommended 4th District stormwater project alone, for instance, may cost more than $200,000 — and that doesn’t include any street repaving and sanitary work.
As you know, money is tight and might be getting tighter, and there is limited money from the stormwater and wastewater utilities to fund these. So we’ll have to find other sources, potentially including borrowing.
This raises two questions …
How much should the city spend to address these problems? And how much will citizens support, especially if that means higher taxes?
They are big questions we’ll have to answer in short order. I look forward to the debate — and finding ways to smartly invest in our infrastructure.
South Milwaukee Blog 