Valleyview runoff plan considered

Valleyview residents may see some relief from persistent flooding issues if a proposed stormwater project goes through this summer.

The city of Spokane Valley held a meeting Wednesday to discuss the project, which will deal with runoff that comes down the hill on Dickey Road and is discharged from a culvert at 14th Avenue. The water takes an abrupt right turn onto 13th Avenue, flooding the cul de sac. Parts of the area regularly get washed out, said assistant development engineer Ryan Brodwater.

Plans call for the installation of three 18-inch pipes underground to take the water coming out of the culvert and pipe it down the west side of Dickey Road from 14th Avenue to property the city owns on 11th Avenue. “This is all within a flood plain,” Brodwater said. “We’re trying to channel the water back to where it used to go historically.”

The city’s property will be transformed into a large swale, which has been designed to allow several large trees to stay in place, he said. “It will take a lot of water off that hillside,” he said.

The project also may involve the removal of some privately owned landscaping that was installed in the street right of way. There is no sidewalk or curb along the road and over a period of years there has been some “right of way creep” when people planted shrubs or other landscaping on the city’s property unknowingly, Brodwater said.

Peter Bromley said the city’s project would do nothing for the problems he has at his home in the 1400 block of South Bettman Road, which joins up with Dickey Road a couple of blocks north of his house. Water comes down the hill and sweeps across his driveway, washing it out every year. Previous efforts to line a drainage ditch with rock to contain the runoff have failed, he said.

Bromley was among several neighbors who had their driveways paved last year in hopes of preventing the annual destruction. Bromley said the paving job hasn’t been tested by high runoff flows yet. “That’s been great, but it was after spring runoff,” he said.

Brodwater assured Bromley that the city will continue to monitor his situation and make other improvements if necessary. “We just paved those driveways last fall,” he said. “We want to see how it does.”

There are issues on Bettman Road that can be solved with some minor changes, Brodwater said. “The grate plugs up with pine needles,” he said. “There are things we could look at to help that situation, too.”

Construction of the proposed stormwater project is expected to last between four and eight weeks sometime this summer. The road will remain open during construction.