$10.9M project on tap for 2018 aimed at keeping southwest Sioux Falls dry

Get ready for some serious road construction in southwest Sioux Falls.

The Public Works Office this week is moving forward with the necessary financing to get started on a $10.9 million storm drainage project that will see 22 city blocks in the neighborhood of 41st Street and Marion Road and Marion Park tore up.

Replacing water mains, storm sewers, street lights and road surfaces there will help keep neighborhood homes dry when heavy rains fall, something that's long been on the radar of City Hall.

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"This is one of the largest projects to improve neighborhood drainage in the last decade," Public Works Director Mark Cotter said. "It's over 230 acres of drainage —where rain falls it all networks into this system that we'll be installing."

Councilor Marshall Selberg said the upgrades are much needed for the perpetually soggy neighborhood. Because most of the existing infrastructure there is 50 years old or more and was installed prior to modern standards, the neighborhood often experiences flooding when downpours occur.

"I don't know if you can call drainage an exciting project, but this is and it's needed," Selberg said, adding he's received calls in the past from residents in the project area whose basements have flooded.

Of the total project costs, the city will borrow $8.4 million from the state of South Dakota at 1 percent interest.

That's a major savings to taxpayers in the long run when compared to the higher interest rates more traditional loans and bonds can bring, Cotter said.

A part of the work will include taking Marion Park out of service for the 2018 season in order to increase the city's storm drainage retention capabilities there. That will be done by installing more than a mile of 12-foot diameter pipe beneath the grass athletic field there.

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"That will provide a storage of 5.6 million gallons and really just gives the gravity of how much drainage networks through this area that needs to be captured, retained and then slowly released," Cotter said.

For reference, Cotter said a similar retention area was previously installed in the Covell Avenue neighborhood below the football field at Edison Middle School. 

In all, the city has more than 340 miles of storm drainage pipe, 10,700 storm drainage inlets, and more than 200 drainage properties - drainage ways and retention ponds.

"So the system itself is large, and this will be a large improvement to this particular neighborhood," Cotter said.

The Council this week will get its first look at project details before being asked to OK Public Work's loan with the state.