When rain comes to Muncie you can count on a few things: grey skies, humidity and flooding on Madison Street under the railway. Until Wednesday, that is, when Mayor Dennis Tyler cut the ribbon for a new storm drainage system on Muncie’s southside.
RELATED: Madison Street pumps stop flooding
Flooding on that section of the street has long been a burden on the city. Tyler said talks to try and fix the problem date back to at least 30 years ago without any luck, but that the project finally getting done is a big win for the city.
“It’s a great project,” he said. “It was just a challenge. We always knew it wasn’t going to be a cheap fix, whatever we decided to do.”
Tyler emphasized the importance of keeping Madison Street open all year long to avoid the hassles that road closures present to citizens, businesses and emergency responders.
“If you grew up on the southside of Muncie, like I did, you could bank half a dozen times a year the corridor between the north and south sides would be closed because of water,” he said. “But the problem has always been that there was nowhere for the water to go.”
The solution to that problem lies 40 feet below the ground where the new system's four water pumps lie. Two pumps are designated for pumping water from the street down to the main storm water line closer to downtown. When the water starts to build up, the second pair of pumps will kick on and begin pumping water to temporary storage in the 750,000 gallon storage tank.
Superintendent of the water pollution control facility in Muncie, John Barlow and his staff, will maintain the automated facility.
“It should kick on and off on its own and cycle on its own,” Barlow said. “What we do is monitor it back at the water pollution control facility so that if any alarms come on we can stay on top of it quick.”
Mayor Tyler said the flooded road wasn’t a good look for Muncie and that the new system is a very important quality of life improvement for the city.
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