Glenside Flood Control Project
January 10,2020 Update
Presentation on Glenside Flood Control from Department of Environmental
Protection that was presented to the Public Works committee meeting on
January 8, 2020 (Presentation).
Project Background
The Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) earmarked $4 million for the Glenside
Flood Control Phase II Project, which was stalled for years because
several large property owners critical to the DEP design refused to
grant easements. A brand new concept, excluding those problematic properties, has revived the project. The new design entails:
- acquiring three flood-prone commercial properties on North Avenue to remove the structures to create vegetated detention ponds.
- acquiring the parking lot at the corner Rices Mill Road and Glenside Avenue to remove the asphalt and regrade the property as a bio-detention
basin.
- raising the existing earthen levee by 3 feet along the Keswick channel behind Brookdale Avenue properties.
- replacing the existing levee from near the pumping station to the Rices Mill Road bridge with a new flood wall.
- installing a second culvert under Glenside Avenue to parallel the existing culvert.
Neighborhood and public
meetings to review the proposal were held beginning March 2013. At the
April 10, 2013 Public Works Committee meeting, DEP made a presentation about the plan. The changes in the two plans are clarified in this letter from DEP.
The Committee then recommended the approval of the plan and the
preparation of construction documents, which would be the next step. This project was put on hold in 2015 so the DEP project would not affect the cost-benefit analysis of U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers
(ACOE) Tookany Creek Flood Reduction Feasibility Study.