Pinellas County public works crews are racing to complete a drainage project on Bay Pointe Golf Course in Seminole after the area flooded last year when Hurricane Hermine brushed by the Bay Area.
- Pinellas public works trying to complete drainage project at a Seminole golf course
- Project would alleviate flooding issues
- Concrete wall has been repaired, crews have also removed two failed drainage pipelines
“They’ve been working their tails off,” said resident Christine Thompson, 47. “I’m really thankful that they’ve been doing it.”
Thompson took photos of the flood waters that covered parts of the golf course behind her home that was being held back by a concrete wall. A portion of that wall ended up washing away and the flood water surrounded a home.
“It took out our neighbor’s part of the wall that went onto the golf course. It was a mess,” Thompson said. “I mean it went up to my husband’s knee because the drainage wasn’t very good.”
Pinellas stormwater manager Jim Bernard said crews began working on the drainage project in July after securing rights to the property. The concrete wall has been repaired, crews removed two failed drainage pipelines and replaced them with much larger ones, according to Bernard.
The manager said the project is about 80 percent complete and won’t be finished for another two weeks. Hurricane Irma may put it to the test this weekend.
“Hopefully, with what they’re doing it’s going to fix the problem,” said Thompson. “And we won’t have to worry about our wall coming down.”
Bernard said it’s a good project that’s being responsive to what happened last year.