 Rosedale Stormwater Improvements Project (more photos)
From: Dianne Holley Mountain The City of Austin facilitated a "Meet the Contractors" meeting with residents of Rosedale on Thursday, January 12, 2006 at 6:30pm, at the Yarbrough Library. The City presented the latest information about the Shoal Creek - Rosedale Stormwater Improvements Project, in southern Rosedale. The goal of this project is to help alleviate the overland (and into houses) storm flooding due to aging and inadequate storm drainage in this area. About 15 Rosedale residents attended the meeting, which was announced via emails and flyers in the immediate vicinity of the project. Representing the City and Contractors were:
According to Mike Newman, this will be the largest storm drain improvement project undertaken in Austin in at least the past 20 years. The entire duration of the construction will be 310 days. The start date is Jan 17. Since this is an older neighborhood, and there may be underground structures which are unknown, time estimates for completion of each phase are rough. Equipment staging and contractor's office will be at the State Library on Shoal Creek, just south of 45th. Construction hours anticipated to be 7am - 5:30pm, M - F. However, they are legally permitted to work until 7pm and on Saturdays if rain, etc puts them behind schedule. They will do silt fencing and other measures to protect the environment. Aging wastewater lines along 39-1/2 & 40th will also be replaced. This will be Phase 1 of the Shoal Creek - Rosedale Stormwater Improvement Project. They will install a 72" internal diameter storm pipe. This will require a trench about 9-10' wide. Subphase 1 will be along Seiders, from CBI to 39-1/2. Daytime single-lane closures: Some utility lines will be moved in each area prior to actually laying the pipe. This will involve daytime single lane closures with full street access being restored in the evenings and overnight. Utility interruptions: There may be single-day water service interruptions as they switch over to new pipes. They will give 48hr prior written notice. Complete street closures: Laying pipes will involve entire block closure to any traffic/parking for 3-4 weeks (estimated). Construction equipment will be parked on areas not actually trenched. No vehicle access at all, day or night. Curbs: Some curbs may have to be replaced, if the utility lines are too near the property line. Typical rate of pipe construction is 16 - 20 ft/day. They will ask APD for additional coverage during this time to help protect people's vehicles which must be parked on streets away from their homes. Trash collection can be coordinated by contractors When they move onto another area/phase, they will leave the previous block with a temporary pavement, slightly below grade. Once the entire project is complete, they will repave the entire 5-block stretch. Phase 2 is an additional stretch of storm drain and outlets northward along Lewis Lane from 40th St. This phase is currently unfunded and will soon be before the City Council for recommendation to be on the next bond election (either May or November 2006). Those of us whose homes have flooded regularly from water rushing down our streets are very grateful to the City for their efforts on our behalf. They have been working and meeting with us since early 2002 to identify the problems and solutions and to find the funding to implement the solution. We are also grateful to the neighbors who will be inconvenienced by this construction project. Dianne Holley Mountain
From: Mark Brucks The City and their consultants presented the status of the Stormwater project at Monday's neighborhood meeting. I promised a summary (which follows), and to post the drawings from the city, which should add some needed clarity to the text below. We received two drawings from the city:
Michael Newman from the Watershed Engineering Division gave a shortsummary of the history of presentations to RNA, then turned things overto Dale Grey from Espey Consultants who provided all of the technicaldetails. Dale Grey explained that the existing lines are under homes in the area, and therefore those lines cannot be replaced. The plan is to add new stormwater lines in the ROW (right of way) to handle the demand. The existing lines vary from 24" to 48" capacity - the new line will be 72" in diameter. Given the size of the pipe, there will be a 10 foot wide trench (at least) somewhere within the 25 foot wide ROW along the following streets - Seiders, 39th 1/2, Rosedale, 40th, and Lewis Lane. The key to reducing the amount of flooding is the large number of new inlets to the pipe, and their strategic location designed to get the water off the surface and into the pipe (the first diagram shows the locations of the inlets and the side of the street the trench will occupy). This new pipe will feed into a 60" pipe that is under the parking lot at Temple Beth Israel that eventually empties into Shoal Creek. According to Dale Grey, the 72" pipe feeding the 60" pipe is not a problem, since the gradient of the 60" pipe is much greater, hence its capacity is equivalent. The construction will proceed in 5 phases, starting in June '05 andending in December '05, with each phase lasting about 1 month (with theextra time devoted to the inevitable weather delays, etc.) Each phasewill require road closures, and they will occur in the order above (i.e.Seiders, 39th 1/2, Rosedale, 40th, Lewis Lane). While each street isclosed, residents should still have access to their homes, although itmight require slow going. In addition, normal services (e.g. trash,recycling, mail) should not be distrupted. The goal is also to ensurethat other utilities are not interrupted. However, they said that someof the existing utility lines are quite old, and might need to bereplaced (and hence service would be interrupted). They are also working with the City to try to ensure that majorvegetation (large trees) will not be adversely affected by theconstruction. There are several very large trees along the ROW thatthey will be trying to work around and minimize the disruption to theirroot systems. At the other end of the spectrum, since this project willrequire very big equipment, there will be collateral damage to smallerplants and ground cover adjacent to the side of the street containingthe trench. They are going to truck some of the trench material offsitefor storage, but some of it will likely be piled within the constructionzone and on those precious plants. Trish Wadsack from the City of Austin Public Works Dept. will providee-mail updates to the neighborhood in general and hand deliver noticesto directly affected residents. Finally, there were several questions about the efficacy of this wholeproject. Michael Newman explained that this is the first phase ofstormwater projects. There may be future phases, moving upstream alongthe drainage route. The goal of this and any future phases is todrastically improve the situation, but there is no guarantee that thiswill eliminate the flooding problems. Mark Brucks RNA Co-president |