An on-going project in east Windsor continues to reduce the level of surface flooding in the area.
The City of Windsor unveiled changes in Tranby Park and Tranby Avenue on Thursday including installation of a new wetland themed playground, improved drainage for the existing baseball diamonds and ditches filled in from Matthew Brady to Isabelle Place.
Ward 6 Councillor Jo Anne Gignac says residents in the area have definitely noticed a difference.
"Within a four or five block radius, these were some of the most heavily hit in the 2016 and 2017 floods," she says. "They've been waiting for the project"
Also speaking on Thursday, Mayor Drew Dilkens urges residents to be patient, saying the entire flooding master plan is all connected.
"So making improvements in Riverside will actually help folks in the downtown area and vice versa, so it really is a systemic change that needs to happen," says Dilkens. "We recognize this is going to take a period of time to actually implement but we're going to work as quickly as possible, we've certainly prioritized it in our capital budget funding."
Gignac goes on to say that residents in the impacted areas have had enough and are glad to see improvements being made.
"There's nothing worse than having water in your home and there's nothing worse than living along Riverside Drive and watching those water levels come up," she says. "And if you've travelled that route over the last year, you've seen an incredible number of residents, at their expense, incorporating projects on their property to try to address that."
City Council has invested $58-million for multi-phase improvements, and the federal government came to the table in 2018 with support through Phase 1 of the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, investing $32-million over 10 years for flood protection initiatives in Windsor.
— With files form AM800's Rob Hindi