PDF: North Beach Stormwater Project Details<\/a><\/p>\nDesigned decades ago, the original system is no longer efficient for current tidal elevations and weather events.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is some of our elevation challenges and examples of different storm events,\u201d said Marcus Williamson, Public Works Director for the city of Clearwater, who describes the streets as sitting in a bowl.<\/p>\n
He says it\u2019s just one of the challenges the city is addressing with the project that includes installing six news pump stations. The new pumps will address issues including flooding from frequent rainstorms, rising seas and higher times, and aim to bring relief to residents in low-lying areas.<\/p>\n
One of those residents is Vevie Dimmitt, who has lived in her Clearwater home for more than 25 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese culverts are literally at sea level so if we have a high tide and we have rain, even if it\u2019s not a bad storm, we had flooding in the streets,\u201d said Dimmitt.<\/p>\n
A temporary pump near her home will help mitigate flooding while designs are finalized for the permanent pumps.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo just the electrical equipment gets elevated,\u201d explained Williamson.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur permanent solution for all our pump stations would be in this area; it would be below ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
The elevated platform says Williamson is designed on theme with the water, to look like a lifeguard tower.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so happy that they are paying attention to quiet and visual,\u201d said Dimmitt.<\/p>\n
Williamson says each pump station will be individualized based on the property it sits.<\/p>\n
While the project is ongoing, he urges residents and contractors to help keep underground systems clear.<\/p>\n
He says construction materials like concrete and landscape debris are found discarded, which can cause system failure and flooding.<\/p>\n
Improvement of the stormwater infrastructure is being done in phases. Each pump will be designed with an approach that allows for upgrades later if sea levels rise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2014 The North Beach stormwater improvement project is underway in Clearwater. What You Need To Know…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[767,1187,115,596,135,137,136,835],"class_list":["post-231681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-community","tag-melissa-eichman","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}