The South Howard Flood Relief Project<\/a> carries an estimated $100-million price tag and is designed to address flooding that residents and businesses say has worsened over the years.<\/p>\nThe developer working on the project is scheduled to meet with the community Tuesday at 6 p.m. to discuss the plans and answer questions from residents.<\/p>\n
According to the city\u2019s plans, the project would put a major stormwater drainage system underground.<\/p>\n
City renderings describe the system as an \u201cunderground river\u201d, a 10-foot-by-10-foot drainage line designed to move stormwater away from South Howard, West Swann and surrounding neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
Photos from the Parkland Estates and Palma Ceia Pines neighborhoods show the flooding that can occur during heavy rain.<\/p>\n
The city acknowledges construction will be disruptive, but officials say the long-term benefits of the project outweigh the short-term challenges.<\/p>\n
Some of the pushback is coming from people concerned that construction could create a significant mess and affect businesses along the project route.<\/p>\n
The Tampa City Council is expected to take a final vote on the project at the end of August.<\/p>\n
If approved, construction would begin in January 2027 and take place in smaller sections. Work in each area is expected to last approximately six to nine weeks.<\/p>\n
The project is expected to be completed by summer 2030.<\/p>\n
Although much of the project will be underground, the city also plans improvements at street level.<\/p>\n
Those improvements are expected to include wider sidewalks, upgraded crossings, lighting, landscaping, and changes intended to improve traffic flow.<\/p>\n
The city also said it plans to help businesses maintain foot traffic during construction through a marketing campaign.<\/p>\n
The community meeting will give residents and business owners an opportunity to learn more about the construction timeline, ask questions, and raise concerns before the city council\u2019s final vote<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A major stormwater project aimed at reducing flooding in South Tampa is moving forward, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,770,276,3741,2635,2287,115,135,137,136,278],"class_list":["post-368310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-infrastructure","tag-jason-lanning","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368310","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=368310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}