Heard a city planner say 'we can't afford to fix the storm drains' and it got me thinking

I was at a town hall meeting in Austin last Tuesday and someone from the planning office literally said they've got a $4 million backlog just for updating old drainage systems. Meanwhile they're dropping cash on new highway lanes every year. How do we expect people to take flood risks seriously when the infrastructure keeps getting ignored? Has anyone else noticed their local streets flooding more after heavy rain?

3 comments

3 Comments

rodriguez.felix10d ago

Yeah it's frustrating. I see the same thing here in San Antonio where they keep widening the freeways but the drainage ditches in my neighborhood haven't been cleaned in years. Every time it rains hard the water sits on the road for days. It's like they only care about stuff people see everyday instead of the pipes and drains underground. Once those fail it's way more expensive to fix everything that gets ruined. Shortsighted planning is just costing us more in the long run.

elliot_taylor10d ago

Drainage is boring until your basement floods... then suddenly it's the only thing that matters.

norab219d ago

We had a 3 inch pipe clogged with tree roots last spring and it cost me $2,800 to dig up the yard and replace it... turns out the previous owners planted a willow way too close to the house. Now I walk the perimeter after every big storm to check for standing water near the foundation. A basic $20 drain snake and a wet vac can save you a lot of headache if you catch it early.