OCEAN CITY — Some of Ocean City’s chronic flooding issues could be soon relieved with an extensive project to clean the town’s vast storm drain system on tap.
The debate on the storm-drain cleaning project began last week during the Coastal Resources Legislative Committee, or Green Team, meeting and carried over to Monday’s Mayor and Council meetings. During those two sessions, it was learned the town’s drainage system had not been thoroughly cleaned since September 1985 following Hurricane Gloria.
In the three decades since, the town’s storm drains have steadily clogged to the point they are contributing somewhat to the town’s chronic flooding problem in some areas. Public Works Director Hal Adkins said this week the town’s storm drain system is vast with about 46 miles of pipe, 2,400 catch basins planted in the roadways throughout the town and 330 outfalls into the coastal bays.
“The last time we did any extensive storm drain and catch basin cleaning was in September 1985 right after Hurricane Gloria,” Adkins said. “We did it that time out of necessity. After the storm, some areas of Baltimore Avenue downtown were under two feet of sand. That’s how much sand ended up in the drainage system during that storm.”
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...yeah, it's only 46 miles of pipes. It should be regular maintenance, just like dredging channels/inlets. Not once every few decades. F'n amateur hour in OC.
ReplyDelete30 yrs ????? Someone needs to be FIRED.
ReplyDeleteBeen stating Hal Adkins was /is incompetent in his position. He does not have a schedule for this type of maintenance or any other. He is responsible for these activities. That is what you get from a "HOME BOY". He was allowing the Transportation Dept., i.e. buses, to lose thousands of dollars a season by not putting the money room under the finance dept. in 2006. This still might be happening. I was always curious what his kickback was from this embezzlement.
ReplyDelete