City tackles flooding around high school neighborhood

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

When it rains, it often pours into homes on Dennis Street near the Key West High School.

That’s something city commissions took aim at on July 6, when they voted unanimously to take the first step in a three-step project to increase drainage in the area.

“The area of Dennis Street between Venetia Street and Blanche Street near the Key West High School has historically flooded. The area collects water that makes the streets impassable and floods into neighboring homes. Numerous structures within the area are on FEMA’s repetitive loss list for flood insurance claims,” wrote Key West Utilities Director John Paul Castro in a memo to City Manager Jim Scholl.

Commissioners voted to spend $114,000 to hire engineering firm Black and Veatch to draw up a preliminary design for a new storm water pump station to be built on Dennis Street. While there is an existing gravity well at Dennis Street, it is too low to be effective and standing water often floods the area after a rainstorm. The new pumping station will lift water to a new pressurized drainage well in order to reduce the duration of standing water in the area surrounding the high school, Castro said.

The new pump station will likely be located mid-block on Dennis Street between Venetia and Blanche streets, but that could change during the conceptual design work.

Phase II, which is expected to cost $198,360, will use the conceptual design to draw up construction blueprints for the job, then bid out the project. The total cost for the pumping station project is estimated at $2.7 million.

City commissioners approved a stormwater master plan in 2012 that outlined projects to alleviate flooding in low-laying areas around the city. The city just completed a stormwater project along Caroline Street that shut a portion of that roadway for several months.

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