By Ashley Fletcher Frampton
aframpton@scbiznews.com
Published Sept. 10, 2009

Charleston is seeking a $146.3 million federal stimulus grant to pay for an overhaul to the drainage system beneath downtown streets that flood often during rainstorms.

The city is applying for the money from a $1.5 billion transportation fund that Congress included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act earlier this year.

Applications for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery competitive grant program are due to the U.S. Department of Transportation on Tuesday. The city expects a decision on the grant some time between November and February, said Laura Cabiness, director of the city’s Public Service Department.

Today, Mayor Joe Riley is in Washington to meet with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to discuss the project and answer any questions, Cabiness said. It’s the second time Riley has met with LaHood about the project.

Cabiness said downtown streets, including the Crosstown Expressway, flood because the drainage pipes beneath them are too small and don’t have enough inlets to carry rainwater quickly to the Ashley River. The current road system was built atop a drainage system that originally served smaller streets, she said.

The city’s answer is a 12-foot tunnel underneath the area bordered by King and Bee streets, Hampton Park and the Ashley River. The tunnel would terminate at the Ashley River, where a pump would empty 360,000 gallons of water per minute into the river.

“When you get several inches of rain over a 500-acre basin, you’re dealing with a lot of water,” she said. “You have to move it pretty quickly.”

Cabiness said once the water reaches the river, it would be free-flowing. In the current system, water backs up and cannot get to the river.

The city has been working on the design, permitting and other preliminary parts of the project for about five years and has spent about $7 million so far, Cabiness said. Charleston doesn’t have the $146.3 million to do the work, she said, but officials knew they needed to get started on the design in order to apply for federal grants.

When the design work started, Cabiness said the city didn’t anticipate the special stimulus fund, which is for surface transportation projects that will have a significant impact on the nation, a metropolitan area or a region.

In a resolution endorsing the project, City Council noted that flooding in the area directly affects 20% of the peninsula and that the portion of U.S. 17 in question, also called the Septima P. Clark Expressway, is part of a state evacuation route for the region.

The city should have all necessary permits by next week, making the project “shovel-ready” if the money were awarded, Cabiness said.

In addition to drainage work, the project would include surface transportation improvements, including landscaping, crosswalks and traffic signals on the Crosstown.

If the city doesn’t get the $146.3 million from the stimulus grant fund, Cabiness said officials will seek other federal grant opportunities.

“This is an opportunity to get all of the funding at once and get this thing finished,” she said.