City council is being asked to approve the next step in a priority project aimed at handling heavy rainfalls and flooding issues in Windsor's Riverside neighbourhoods.
An administration report going to theĀ April 11 meeting asks council to approve a number of recommendations to move forward with the St. Rose Stormwater Pumping Station.
The report asks that council endorse the recommendations presented in the draft Environmental Study report and that Planning Act applications be made to allow the St. Rose Stormwater Pumping Station to be constructed on the preferred site at St. Rose Beach Park.
Chris Nepszy, Commissioner of Infrastructure Services, says there are a significant amount of homes that are impacted by flooding in this area.
"The sewer master plan undertook a city-wide approach to analyze the existing sewer system network and finalize recommendations to reduce the risk of flooding in areas that were prone to these disastrous storm events and this was identified as a key area," he says.
The preferred location would be on a vacant piece of land along the Detroit River in the St. Rose Beach Park greenspace on the north side of Riverside Drive East, right across from the foot of St. Rose Avenue.
The need for a a new stormwater pumping station near the existing storm sewer outlet was identified as a priority project in the city's Sewer and Coastal Flood Protection Master Plan.
Nepszy says if council endorses this, there will be a 30-day period for comment on the plan.
"Following that, the budget has already been approved for this project, so we can get into detailed design and move forward into construction that way. So we'd be looking at design beginning this year and construction following that," he says.
Nepszy says this will only make things better for the residents and the system overall.
"When you look at high priority projects, and projects that have value and provide big impacts to the area, St. Rose Pumping Station improvements is one of those. There are numerous homes that will benefit from the improvements that we're looking to provide here at the pump station," he adds.
The preliminary cost estimates for the pumping station are in the range of $30-million.
Windsor city council meets at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 11.