LUCERNE, Calif. – A project to improve water flow and stop seasonal flooding of a Lucerne creek is under way.
The Victoria Drainage Channelization and Culvert Upgrade project began this week on Victoria Street in Lucerne.
According to the county's project description, the work to be done includes reshaping and excavating approximately 1,000 cubic yards over 675 linear feet of drainage channel and replacing two culvert crossings with Contech con/span structures with headwalls.
The project so far has involved removing a part of the street and a small bridge and culvert.
The end of Victoria Street that intersects with Country Club Drive will be closed until July, according to Steve Phillips, a Lake County Public Works construction engineer.
The area along what's known as Victoria Creek, where it intersects with Victoria Street and Kensington Way, has been known to flood during the winter rainy seasons, with water pooling in the streets.
The flooding was particularly bad on New Year's of 2006, causing concerns for nearby homeowners.
“It builds up with gravel, mainly because the flow capacity of the existing culvert structures were too small, so we' re upsizing the culvert size at Victoria Street and also Kensington Way,” said Phillips.
Increasing the culvert size is expected to mitigate flooding problems, said Phillips.
Because the county is performing a hazard grant mitigation project at the site, the Federal Emergency Management Agency gave the county grant funding to cover the work, according to Phillips.
Phillips said the total project cost currently is estimated at $262,000, which he said is paid for entirely by the FEMA grant.
“The construction should be completed by the end of July,” said Phillips.
Next Monday, Phillips said, demolition of a portion of street around the existing culvert on Kensington Way will take place.
Concrete for the footings for the new culvert on Victoria Street will be poured on Friday, he said.
Phillips said the county has already extracted gravel upstream of the Victoria Street crossing, and the contractor on the project, Bouthillier's Construction Inc., will conduct gravel extraction from the Victoria crossing down to Country Club as part of the project, Phillips said.
Bouthillier's Construction Inc., based in Willits, submitted the winning bid for the project last year, according to county records.
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