Repair work is currently underway on the Bolton Street Brickline, a large 150-year-old storm water line in Savannah, Ga. According to WTOC, the now-closed drainage line caused flooding, and the water cannot flow through the storm water line while the work is going on until repairs are made.
The city attempted to schedule the work for a drier period of the year, however weather events on ‘Wednesday and Thursday left standing water on the streets surrounding the storm water line work”, according to WTOC.
“We have a homeowner who’s lost his air conditioning,” said resident Virginia Mobley to WTOC. “As of right now, we have a business who has lost his main...his income. He has lost his income, and it’s going to cost him money. We’ve lost our income."
Savannah’s Chief Development Office, Heath Lloyd, briefed the Savannah city council on the flooding issues Thursday.
“When rain happens and we’re trying to do a rehab, you can’t flood out that line, and so we have put some things in place, and that’s why yesterday, the flooding appeared to be worse than normal. It has everything to do with us rehabbing that 102-in. storm line,” Lloyd said at the Thursday meeting, according to WTOC.
Lloyd said the 150-year old storm line needs to be repaired soon, to keep more problems from occurring.
“The risk for not doing the work now exceeds any inconvenience, and I certainly know, I want to say this, that the citizens and the businesses don’t necessarily see that, but when you talk about the size of a 102-in. storm water line and the magnitude or the volume of water that it takes, if that line were to have a failure, where we would now either have to go in and do a very significant repair, or we could not repair it, that would be a major inconvenience,” Lloyd said.
The City of Savannah released this statement Friday, June 7:
“The City of Savannah is monitoring the structural flooding in and around Bolton Street. Lanzo is the contractor on the project and assumes ALL liability should damages be incurred by any homeowners and/or business owners. The city is working closely with them to assist in any way we can, but the ultimate responsibility lies with the contractor.”
