For those of you that use the arterial

[Clipper]

lite987.com/heavy-rain-expected-flooding-possible-in-central-new-york/

If you drive in that area during heavy rains you should at a minimum wear a lifejacket. Just a couple of suggestions for your mayor and NY State DOT. You might get a jump on the storm and the flooding by placing lifeguards on the barrier wall between the North and Southbound lanes with those life rings on the end of a rope that can be thrown to stranded motorists. It the storm gets really violent or long in duration, swift water rescue teams should be stationed on Oswego St and Court St, ready to respond quickly if needed.

On a serious note, what has actually been done to alleviate the problem. Is it possible that the problem might be one of elevation, and that there is just not enough difference in elevation between the area on the arterial and the area where it would be discharged? Is it part of the system that has both sanitary and storm sewers all going into the sewage treatment plant? It seems that it would really cause a major problem and mess if there is a heavy winter rain followed by a freeze. Has there been any more news coverage or information updated since the last incident of the flooding?

My next thought would be what impact will all the new construction in the area of the new hospital have on the already antiquated and inadequate system? It seems to me that this could snowball into a disastrous emergency situation, very expensive for the taxpayers, all because of an error by state engineers.



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[clarencebunsen]

I have not seen or heard anything about any changes. Since the northbound lanes flood and the southbound normally do not, it would seem like there is a solvable problem.

I don't see construction changing the runoff much. The area is pretty much streets, buildings and parking lots now. Utica's ancient sewer design is a problem. High volume water runoff causes sewage discharge into the Mohawk.

[Deleted]

I waitin to see the runoff on Second and First Street intersections with the new route 5/ Oriskany Street. Since all that was dug up I noticed on Second Street the elevation is much lower that the original. First Street isn't finished yet. Of course new sewers were installed with huge pipes so that might just solve water runoff problems.

[Clipper]

I wonder what would happen if they simply cut drainage holes in the concrete barriers and added a few catch basins and storm drains to let the water go wherever the water falling on the Southbound side goes.

Utica has always had parts of the city where flooding has been a problem. When I was a kid on Jamestown Ave, off of Keyes Rd in N. Utica, Jamestown Ave used to flood when it rained but would drain as soon as the rain let up. Then they built another 40 or so homes up the hill toward Cosby Manor Rd. When the existing storm drains had to handle the extra runoff, the water used to bubble up out of the drains on Jamestown, sometimes taking the covers off the catch basins.

Another area that was plagued with flooding in spring and during long-duration downpours was the Roosevelt Drive area in S. Utica.

Do you think that there will ever be a time when they actually replace the old sewer system and separate the stormwater from the sanitary system? That certainly would be a project of enormous magnitude. I imagine it would take years and would have to be done in small increments. Is New Harford part the same system or do they have their own sewer system that keeps the stormwater separate CB?

[Deleted]

WKTV had a great story on this topic since we will be getting near 5 inches of rain today and tomorrow. From what I gathered from the program is that the Mohawk River is not deep enough since when if fills up with runoff from a few inches of rain it backs up the system and therefore causes all the flooding. I can certainly understand that since when the River was built the engineers did not know of what an impact sewage water runoff pipes would have on it. I think Cuomo needs to deepen the Mohawk River and maybe even widen it with some beach and resort areas suitable for the type of employee of the new Marcy Chip plant near SUNY POLLY.

[clarencebunsen]

New Hartford drainage is a work in process, probably always will be. As far as I know we don't have any of the 19th century designs used in the older parts of Utica. There sewage and storm water are in separate channels in one tunnel. High rain volumes mke the two mingle and results in sewage in the river.

One of the problems is that until about 40 years ago the problems were not recognized. The houses behind me were built in the 60s on wetlands. Fill was brought in and houses built. Of course those houses had wet basements and muddy yards. Owners installed drain tiles and the water ended up in the storm sewers. A couple years ago built a flood bench downhill from those houses. It serves part of the function of the wetlands, In a heavy rain it collects water and slows down the discharge into Sauquoit Creek.

One of the positive things I have seen is the agreement between the town and the state that the town would only permit new customers to connect to the system if they could show that more than that volume had been diverted from the system. Since that time I have seen liners installed in a lot of lines to prevent ground water from leaking into the lines.