Rain, Rain, and more Rain

Progress was moving forward on the East Central project through the early days of this week but with all the moisture progress has ground to a stand still, giving me a few minutes to get caught up on blog entries.

Before we get caught up on the project I want to take a minute to review why we are doing the project.  With all the rain in the past couple of days water is backing up on Tulip Lane causing residents problems accessing their driveways and homes.

Tulip Lane Water Build Up April 17th

There are a couple reasons for the backups the first is the inability of the existing storm water collection system to pick up the amount of rain and runoff that is existing in the area from minor to major events.  The system that is present is nothing more than a slightly enhance field tile drainage system that was never intended to handle the amount of run off from an urban section such as what is built there now.

The second reason is the amount of debris and trash that collects in this area.  City crews have been out to the Tulip Lane area several times over the past few days and cleaned out clogs in the intakes that are due to the accumulation of trash and debris getting washed into the intakes and collection system.  Once clogged the water that had a slow route out ends up with NO route out.  Residents in the area can help this second issue by picking up garbage and ensuring that grass and leaves don't get into the street and to the intakes.

So in summary two issues here 1. limited capacity in the existing system and 2. garbage and debris blocking the limited capacity.  The solution to the first issue is on the way through this project.  Capacity will be greatly enhanced and the water will be cleaned through the enhance collection process.  The solution to the second problem could still cause problems in the future if we all don't do our part to help keep the intakes clean.  Remember that pop bottle that gets washed down will block the system or eventually end up in the lake - neither option is something we want to achieve.

Now back to the project . . .

As we have talked about previously the only way to work the project is to focus on the southern portion of the project first so that as we get to the areas like Tulip Lane where massive amounts of water are waiting to be collected and moved we have the systems in place below to handle them and clean the water prior to out letting it into the lake.  Thus the majority of the work on the project is focus right now around the golf course where the major holding ponds will be located.

Work on Monday continued to build the structures that are on either side of the HWY 7 bore.

Manhole on South side of HWY 7 where other storm water pipes join prior to going into the ponds in the golf course.

The picture above shows the new manhole installed on the south side of HWY 7 with the joining locations for the other storm water lines coming in.  The manhole is connected at the bottom to the line that was bored in last week and that will bring water in from the areas to the north once everything is connected.  The smaller lines coming in from the east and west are lines that bring in storm water collected along the HWY 7/East Lakeshore Drive road through the existing rain gardens.

Prior to the manhole being installed you could see as shown in the picture below the pipe that was bored into place under the road.

The south side of the storm water pipe that was bored into place.

Crews from Lundell were also preparing to start work on the ponds in the golf course.  Prior to digging the ponds they had to prepare an area for placement of the dirt they were going to excavate.  In our plan that dirt will help form some additional berms on the course.  To prevent run off from the piles as they build them they started by installing silt fence which is actually dug into the ground around the areas where the berms will be built.

Crews install Silt Fence

The next step was to pull off the top layer of black dirt on the existing area which will be reserved for placement back on top to provide a good fertile soil for the grass to grow.

Crews removing black dirt from the existing course where the new berms will be placed.

The contractor is hopeful that if we can get a week to a week and a half of good weather they can get the ponds on the golf course dug and established and the berms in place.  The key being good weather and even though the rain may not be falling after the amount that we have had and with more on the way it could take some time to dry the area out before work can resume.