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Projects to fortify drainage routes

While the projects won't cut flooding, they're aimed at keeping a pair of drainage channels in place and reducing the need for maintenance.

By SHANNON TAN
Published November 19, 2005

LARGO - The city will kick off two major drainage improvement projects, which have been in the works for years, over the next two months.

Construction on the $930,000 McKay Creek project will start the first week of December. The $1.69-million Channel One project, from south of East Bay Drive to south of Cambridge Drive, will begin in January.

The projects won't reduce flooding, said Chuck Mura, the city's senior design engineer.

"These are more of an effort to keep the channel where it belongs and reduce the need for periodic maintenance for the city," Mura said.

The contractor for the McKay Creek project, Keystone Excavators, will strengthen the channel by installing gabion baskets, or metal cylinders, to reduce bank erosion. The improvements will extend from the Pinecrest Golf Course to the southern end of Gatewood Drive.

A honeycomb mesh with cells six inches deep also will be placed along several spots on the creek bottom and sides to help stabilize the bank. Some vegetation will be removed from the creek, and new fences will go up along Patlin Circle. Mura said residents had requested landscaping or vinyl fences as a buffer between their homes and Largo Medical Center.

The project should be completed in about seven months.

Three years ago, an engineering consultant hired by the city recommended a plan of routine maintenance to slow down erosion and a city-initiated program to buy those homes most affected by flooding.

Although the projects are not intended to reduce flooding, nearby residents hope the move to slow erosion will alleviate that problem.

Richard Bowhall, 59, moved into a home on East Patlin Circle eight years ago. He said his back yard has turned into a lake three or four times during downpours.

"It's very nerve-wracking every time it rains that hard and you see the water coming up," he said. "You never know when it's going to get high enough to come up to the house."

Bowhall can't wait for the city to clean up the creek. He's hoping they'll install a fence at the back of his property.

"So I don't have to see the mess back there," he said. "It's ugly."

The Channel One project will include improvements similar to those at McKay Creek. The banks will be reshaped and regraded, Mura said, and Lake Killarney will be dredged.

After the drainage improvements are completed, crews will not have to maintain the channels as often as before.

The project is expected to be finished by Harvey-Taddeo Inc. of Oldsmar in eight months.

Shannon Tan can be reached at shtan@sptimes.com or 445-4174.

[Last modified November 19, 2005, 01:08:18]