City says Albert Street underpass flooding issues will be addressed in 2021
The City of Regina is looking at how to address flooding issues at the Albert Street underpass.
People in Regina are still dealing with the aftermath of a heavy rainfall on Tuesday.
More than 34 millimetres of rain fell over a few hours.
Streets around the city were flooded, the underpass near Saskatchewan Drive and Albert Street was filled with water and sewer caps were dislodged as water spewed from below.
Other areas outside the downtown were also hit hard.
Pat Wilson, the director of water waste and environmental services for the city, said that the city would start working on the Albert Street underpass in 2021 and 2022.
"We have drainage projects going on all the time," Wilson said. "Albert Street is a much more complicated situation to deal with, there is not space to have a detention pond there so we have much more challenging solution like underground storage which is also a much more expensive solution."
"Broad Street is one that we will be reviewing," Wilson said.
Wilson pointed out that during the heavy rainfall, Victoria Avenue did not flood. The city installed a detention pond for that underpass a few years ago.
"Whenever we see these big rainfall events [it] also gives us a great deal of information that we can use to manage our drainage models," Wilson said. "We do a lot of work to determine where we expect to see problems and to plan our capital investments."
Wilson said that detention ponds on Parliament Avenue and Lewvan Drive did function the way they were intended to during the storm.
"They did fill up last night and all of that water that went into detention ponds didn't go onto the streets and didn't go into homes," Wilson said.
Flooded businesses and homes
Some Quance Street businesses, on the city's east side, were also dealing with flooding overnight and Wednesday morning.
There were some caught in the flooding beneath the underpass who abandoned their vehicles.
Traffic was moving and flowing normally by the time morning rolled around.
Wilson said several people who called into the city to report flooded basements.
"We worry first about the hospitals, schools, care homes and things like that, where people might be more vulnerable," Wilson said. "But we also do rely on those calls from the residents to tell us where they're seeing accumulations."
There have been 38 water-related claims for property in Regina so far.
"There are a number of steps people can take to try and help protect themselves: making sure that they have weeping tile, and sump pumps, and making sure that their eaves lead well away from the foundations of their homes," Wilson said, "[These] are big steps in making sure that that water stays where it's meant to be."
Several neighbourhoods including Dieppe, Windsor Place and Rosemont lost power due to the weather.
Electricity remained off overnight in a few communities southeast of Regina, including Gray, Kronau and Lajord, but SaskPower says crews will be back on site this morning to restore power.
Police Chief Evan Bray said that anytime the police have these types of emergency situations they have to ensure the safety of the public. He said the top priority is finding out if anyone is stuck somewhere, as happened at the underpass Tuesday.
"We had to ensure their safety, we had to ensure that no other vehicles entered," Bray said.
Bray said he is really proud of the work the officers and other city services did.
"We were able to really minimize the damage that was done and hopefully keep traffic moving fairly efficiently," Bray said.
He said that someone might get stuck in the underpass due to underestimating how deep the water is before deciding to go through.
"When you turn the corner sometimes there's not a lot of room, once you've turned that corner you're committed." Bray said, "There's no places to turn off and so there's some early inclinations that maybe the water's not that deep, the water is that deep and once you get into it it's very tough".
He said he's spoken to a couple motorist who have gotten stuck in the underpass and they say it happens very quickly.
"It's like your car floats into the water and you don't have the ability to back it up, you lose control of your vehicle," Bray said. "Luckily no one was seriously injured and there wasn't a lot of damage that was done."
Bray said the underpass tends to flood quickly, leaving little time for police or drivers to prepare. He said that if a driver finds themselves in a dangerous situation with a flooded overpass, they should stop their vehicle as soon as possible.
"We may have to back some cars up but we'd much rather that than have to call a tow truck in and pull you out of the water."
