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Engineers recommend triple‑pipe underground design for South Elliot Street drainage; council to review final plan
Summary
City engineers are moving toward a buried three‑pipe solution to carry stormwater on South Elliot Street; final engineered drawings and cost estimates are forthcoming.
City engineers have proposed replacing the existing open ditch on South Elliot Street with a buried multi‑pipe system to increase flow capacity and allow grading and covers where homeowners and utilities limit open channels.
Public works staff described preliminary engineering that would use three metal (corrugated) oval pipes in parallel where larger single‑poly pipes are not available in the required oval shape. "They don't make the oval in poly, so they would have to be back to the metal," one staff speaker said. The plan would run three pipes where needed and step down to two then one as the flow decreases northward.
Staff said existing underground utilities — a 16‑inch water main and a 6‑inch gas main — generally will not need to be relocated, though some lateral service lines crossing Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth streets could require lowering. "According to Dale, we won't have to move it," staff said; the speaker added that crossings that branch off the mains may need adjustment.
Councilors and staff discussed timing and next steps. Staff said engineers were finishing drawings and expected to have a deliverable for the council by the first council meeting in May; one staff speaker said the engineer was "wrapping it up now." Temporary repairs made after recent rains, including placement of a temporary 24‑inch pipe to restore flow where a corrugated section failed, were described as effective during high flows.
No formal action was taken; councilors directed staff to obtain final engineered drawings, cost estimates and to report back to the council. Staff also discussed the tradeoffs between metal and poly pipe — metal being less costly but less preferred — and noted that the project would tie into the school’s existing concrete drainage under Fifteenth Street.
Councilors asked the engineer to confirm whether a visible ditch would remain; staff said the surface would be graded so that the drainage would not create a noticeable ditch in many locations, and that area drains would collect runoff at intervals.
