Daley Park Neighborhood

City Finds Alternate Fix for Encanto St Flooding - 8/10/00

City had Plans to Fix Flooding Before Monsoon, 2000

(Story/work by Jim Newell, news editor Ernest Kurschat)In 1999, eight homes along Encanto were threatened or damaged by backed up storm water during a severe monsoon storm. Public Works hired an engineering consultant to identify that constriction and plan a retrofit. The City plan had called for: 1) a one way valve on the Encanto junction box, 2) a bypass route at Vista Del Cerro, and 3) access to the SRP junction box valve to divert storm water into the SRP ditch. Work was supposed to begin by mid to late summer.

The storm water that collects at the intersection of Encanto and Rural drains from Rural Road.

The storm water drains north into a 24” pipe, then east through a 30” pipe, then north again to the river through a 42” pipe under Rural Road. Unfortunately, a constriction (dip) occurs in the 30” pipe which slows the drainage.

Slight Change of Plans

Andy Goh, city engineer, had been given verbal assurance from SRP Operations that the retrofit would not be a problem. “However”, in the meantime SRP “Legal” Department has identified some serious financial liabilities that accompany “joint-use” pipelines. SRP is trying to get out of the storm water business. This legal chess game between the City and SRP will delay or void the “our one-way valve retrofit”.

Alternate Construction Plan to Begin October, 2000

Andy and the consultant have identified an alternate drain plan that does not require SRP approval. This new plan relies on an easement from our neighbor (at the northwest corner of Rural and Encanto). The city’s right-of-way people are working on the legal requirements now.
Once the easement is in place the new plan will be formally bid and construction should begin in September. They should begin construction in October.

Andy has not ruled out the one-way valve plan but he suspects the bypass pipeline will be done first.