PORT ANGELES — Street flooding is an annual occurrence for residents who live near several intersections on the city’s west side.
Earlier this week, the Port Angeles City Council took its first step toward resolving that problem.
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a $165,100 contract with an engineering firm to find ways to end the flooding at the intersection of Sixth and H streets and along Fourth Street between F and I streets.
The company, PACE Engineers Inc., also will analyze the costs of possible solutions and how effective they may be.
Glenn Cutler, city public works and utilities director, said he expects that the company will have a report for the city by the end of the year.
He attributed the problem to undersized stormwater pipes.
Gene Erickson, who lives at the intersection of Sixth and H streets, agrees, but said it wasn’t a problem when the neighborhood was less developed.
Erickson, 61, said he grew up in that home, which his father built before moving away in 1969.
He didn’t see any flooding until he returned to the residence in 2002.
“They just have a lot more homes,” he said, “and they didn’t put in bigger storm drains.”
Erickson said he sees some flooding along the street each winter.
But about every two years, the water will make it about halfway up his front yard.
Some of his neighbors have it worse.
Erickson said homes that sit on lower ground do get flooded on occasion.
“It’s real nasty,” he said.
Cutler said that area receives some of the worse flooding in the city.
Eliminating the flooding could cost between $950,000 and $1.4 million, according to a city staff memo.
Cutler said the city will consider grants to help fund any improvements.
The memo also lists other potential solutions, such as constructing rain gardens and infiltration wells to capture more of the rain water, as well as increasing the size of storm water pipes.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
