by Thomas Breen | Sep 19, 2022 2:14 pm
(10) Comments | Post a Comment | E-mail the Author
Posted to: Long Wharf, The Hill, Environment
Rendering of planned new drainage pipe (in blue).
City Engineer Zinn: This will help mitigate harms of the "absolutely existential crisis" of climate change.
Expect less flooding on the often-flooded Union Avenue in the years ahead, thanks to a $25 million federal grant that will help the city construct a roughly 3,000-foot drainage pipe and tunnel from West Water Street to the Harbor.
City and state officials celebrated that recently awarded grant and detailed that planned new resilient-infrastructure project during a Monday morning press conference held outside of Union Station.
City Engineer Giovanni Zinn — standing alongside Mayor Justin Elicker, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Gov. Ned Lamont, Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez, City Plan Director Laura Brown, and Assistant City Engineer Dawn Henning — said that the roughly $25.1 million FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC ) grant will cover most of the costs of designing and building out a new drainage pipe from the intersection of West Water Street and Union Avenue to the New Haven Harbor. That project will also require a roughly $10 million state and local funding match.
The pipe will be 10 feet in diameter, lie roughly 45 feet below ground, and extend around 3,000 feet, Zinn said.
It should “ more than double our capacity of stormwater out to the harbor,” he said on Monday. That drainage capacity should double yet again when the Army Corps of Engineers-funded drainage pump station at Long Wharf is also built out and up and running.
Taken together, Zinn continued added, these pipe and pump projects along with the planned new Army Corps of Engineers-funded flood wall along the I‑95 corridor on Long Wharf should help the city maintain existing infrastructure and “ be resilient” in the face of the “ absolutely existential crisis” of climate change.
Examples of recent flooding incidents on and around Union Ave.
Elicker, DeLauro, and Lamont all agreed.
“ The city has been requesting funding and has gotten a remarkable amount of funding to build a wall, a pipe, and a pump,” he said. “ That sounds really uninspiring, right? It’s a wall, a pipe, and a pump. But the wall, the pipe, and the pump are about climate resiliency. They’re about jobs. They’re about economic development. They’re about ensuring that vital infrastructure like Union Station remains safe and accessible.”
Just two weeks ago, the mayor said, “ there was major, major flooding right out here” on Union Avenue. “ And that is a regular occurrence, because this is a low-lying area. We have a lot of flooding here.” (Click here, here, here, and here for previous articles about flooding on Union Avenue.)
U.S. Rep. DeLauro at Monday's presser.
DeLauro said that the city’s so-called “ Inland and Coastal Flood Resiliency Project” was one of roughly 50 projects that FEMA picked to fund nationwide out of more than 780 applications.
“ There’s nothing we can do to prevent natural disasters, but we can prepare for it and help to mitigate the damages,” she said.
Lamont described this pipe project as an example of one governing philosophy winning out over another. The losing philosophy is: “ If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I think we’ve seen the consequences of that attitude accelerating over the last few years,” he said. The winning philosophy: “ A stitch in time save nine. I think that’s what we’re trying to do here.” This is not a flashy project, he said, “ but think of the disaster if the water kept rising here at Union Station.”
While this pipe will ultimately be underground and therefore won’t be visible to Hill residents and Union Station travelers, Rodriguez said, it is indeed a “ shiny buckle” that is going to “ keep this area safe from flooding. … It’s safety, safety, safety.”
Mayor Elicker (center) on Monday.
Zinn and Henning said that, per the federal grant, the city has three years to complete this pipe project.
Over the next year and a half, Zinn said, the city plans to finalize all of its paperwork with FEMA and complete the design of the pipeline tunnel. Then it’ll have to make a “ Go / No Go” decision with FEMA “ once the design is complete, making sure the project’s financials and fundamentals work.”
Then the city should begin construction, which will “ require us to use a tunnel-boring machine 45 feet underground to tunnel from [around Union Avenue and West Water Street] under the railyard, under the highway, and out into the harbor. I don’t plan on sleeping at all during that entire project,” he added with a smile.
Zinn said that construction should take roughly a year and a half to complete. The tunneling work should have “ very little impact on the surface,” he said. There will be “ three large pits the machine will go between.” One of those pits will be off road near Union Avenue, another will be down by Brewery Street, and a third will be by the harbor. “ For a large construction project like this,” he said, that should mean pretty minimal above-ground disruption.
After a few questions from reporters about the timeline for this pipe project, Mayor Elicker returned to the mic.
“ There’s been a lot of focus on the timeline,” he said. “ Whenever we put a timeline out there, Mr. Breen puts it on his calendar and then, when we don’t make the timeline, he says: ‘ Aha!’ We live in a world of uncertainty, especially supply chain uncertainty. … We just need to be cautious about putting out a specific timeline, because these things are complicated and they may take longer than we all would like to see.”
Click on the video below to watch Monday’s press conference in full.
Don't want to miss a single Independent article? Sign up for our daily email newsletter! Click here for more info.
Share this story with others.
This is a very small step in the right direction of getting proactive to prepare for and mitigate climate change impacts. There is a lot more work to be done, and we better get busy, because sea level rise, severity of storms and flooding will only continue to get worse each year.
Horrors! Mr. Breen has a calendar and on it he puts timelines. I'm sure the Mayor made this observation with his "tongue in cheek" - as I'm making mine. Periodic updates on the City's website might be a nice innovation. Nothing exhaustive, just informational updates. We do understand supply chains and "unforeseen circumstances".
HA,HA,HA, now here is a boondoggle if there ever was one. Do any of these people actually live near any of these flooded streets, I do. If they did they would know when the tide is up (the harbor is high) and it rains low streets flood and the WATER does not go down until the tide starts GOING OUT. This should be fun pumping water back into a high tide harbor or worse a hurricane harbor, where do they think the water is going to go when the tide is coming in and in and IN. $25 million into a plugged drain just wait and see. Better start giving everyone an SCUBA and put the intake and exhaust pipes 8 feet over the emergency vehicles roofs or put them on motorized pontoons. Note: if you thought this up keep quiet that way maybe someone else will take the blame. OH it's so fun to comment on NHI.
What's this thing made out of? $116,666 per foot if you include the local/state matching funds.
I'm not an engineer but love learning about how these things work. If they're going 45' below ground I presume that the water then gets pumped uphill to reach the sound? how high is the end of the pipe that drains into the sound? is it possible if the pump ever malfunctioned that water flow the wrong way through the pipe? etc. etc. 10' diameter sounds huge.. you could drive a car through it. Fascinating stuff. Maybe they could do a design presentation some day that could be open to the public.
The simplest way to mitigate Coastal Flooding is to not develop in Flood Plains!!!!!! It's the corporations that are getting the handouts on this one...... Investment Insurance!!!!!
While this is a boon for commuters…elsewhere in this city obsolete ‘combined’ sanitary sewer systems continue wreaking havoc for residents and small businesses. This Disparate Impact is conducive neither to quiet enjoyment nor to economic development..to say nothing of public health. Maybe we ought to just stop complaining..a High Tide Lifts All Boats!
This flooding predates any climate change but is the result of wetlands infilling. West Water Street (where this pipe will start) today is little more than a service road behind the Police Headquarters on Union Ave. However, that street originally bordered the northernmost point of New Haven Harbor. West Water Street then ran along the western shore of the harbor, approximately parallel to, but somewhat east of, today’s Cedar Street. The opposite shore of the harbor was bordered by Water Street, which today runs alongside the Route 34 Connector. So, the entire area between Water St and the original entirety of West Water St is infill, down to and including Long Wharf Drive! The first major infilling took place shortly after the death of Gerard Hallock in 1866, when much of his estate was filled to create the present railroad yard. Most of the remainder was filled in the early 1960s after the construction of I-95. However, when wetlands are filled the ground water doesn’t go away; it’s still down there. This also explains why Kimberly Field turns into mush after a heavy rain: the area between Kimberly Ave and Greenwich Ave originally was a saltmarsh, extending over to the West River. The intersection of E.T. Grasso Blvd and Route 1 floods for the same reason. South Water Street also is built entirely on infill, so floods during every major storm. You can see some old maps here which show the original harbor shoreline: https://citypointnewhavenconnecticut.wordpress.com/historic-maps/
This article should be titled " How to DROWN $50 million + dollars. Boondoggle # 1, does anyone really believe this project is going to come in on budget? 10' diameter stormwater runoff pipe is not especially large, I think the Mill River has one near that size. Mr. Zinn you are a wonderful, valuable asset to New Haven and you have done much fine work however (please excuse the pun) I think you are over your head on this one and you are going to get your feet wet. New Plan: Abandon the P.D. but it in the old Omni, then put the Coast Guard Station there because Townsend Ave. is going under water. Make West Haven the new main station, nice and high on Saw Mill Rd. and use the old Armstrong plant for the engine repair shed (Tracks right there) and the 1 million sq, ft, old tire whse. for the new parking garage, very easy access to N/S 95, run a tunnel from W.H. to State St. for the new N.H. stop and use that monstrosity fake brick building across the street for the new parking garage. Sell the current parking garages to the mega landlords for billions (They like that) and they can make harbor front apts. with boat ramps. Use the flooded tracks for a gondola canal (goes all the way to W.H. harbor.) and put in some floating food trucks and restaurants. And now for the Grand Old Union Station. Please see next post not enough character's left.
The Grand Old Union Station a treasure if there ever was one. So we move it up Columbus Ave. to a nice high spot. Easy to do just get the guys who moved Jefferson Hall in VA. then we make it a FULL (100 piece) orchestral concert hall out of it with balconies for diners. Ah the grand waltz's floating thru the night air and the people dancing across the Grand Ballroom floor. Tens of thousands will come. Of course we can not be greedy so we have some BIG C&W shows and The Oldies like they do down in Philly and some Great Jazz bands, oh yes now we are talking. Better build a big hotel and parking garage near by because we are going to need it and right down at the end of the Ave. will be the sea shore. And that is how we do not drown $50+ million dollars. PS. In my neighborhood we think all those saw horses that go up saying "flooded road closed" are the city's Hedgerows because of they're constant presence. Just sayin.
Just saw another biker hit by a car at this intersection. Had to call… more »
I was biking south in the Orange St bike lane and a car moving west on Lawrence… more »
©2005 – 2022 New Haven Independent