GULF SHORES, Ala. — A $500,000 improvement to the drainage of a neighborhood in a northeastern Gulf Shores will cause some road closures including a detour on Canal Road the week of Nov. 5.

The City Council approved the project in July and workers from W.R. Mitchell are turning dirt and making the improvements. The bulk of improvements in this project are being made to a right of way the city calls Seventh Street.

“We’ve gone through and cleaned out the trees,” Public Works Director Mark Acreman said surveying the site last week. “What they’re doing now is widening the ditch out and they’ll start upgrading all these culvert crossings. What’s there now is a single 48-inch pipe and they’ll put in two 48-inch arch pipes. It’s the same square footage as a 48-inch.”

The culverts under four streets will be upgraded from one opening to two heading toward the canal.

“Canal Road will be closed from Nov. 5 to Nov. 9,” Acreman said. “What we will do is we’re getting all these upgraded so when we get to Canal we can do a detour through 24th. Once we’re through with this outfall that will improve all the drainage within the area and it will double the capacity of this area here.”

This is the same neighborhood that spawned a flooding lawsuit in resulting in the city buying 18 houses from residents. Of the 18 the city bought, the city recently put them up for sale and eight are already under contract.

Another trial in the same lawsuit – the judge split the case into two trials according to plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Ryan – will involve another 10 properties and is upcoming.

Acreman said improvements four years ago alleviated those problems and the addition of the Seventh Street ditch improvements will help even more.

“It’s just taking what we’ve done of Fifth Street and further enhancing it,” he said. “We’ve had no drainage issues on Fifth since we implemented the project back in ’08 and we’ll further enhance that as well as this whole neighborhood here. We’ve got several blocks in either direction that are getting major upgrades in the drainage system out here.

“None of that area’s flooded since we made those improvements in 2008. But the mayor and council have said ‘that’s great, but let’s do even more.’ That’s how we’re approaching this whole area. We’re doing that in other parts of the city as well, doing more drainage projects, more drainage updates.”

In addition to the Seventh Street work, the project will also include a connector between the Seventh and Fifth systems.

“We’re also going to run a ditch from 22nd and tie it back into Fifth Street’s ditch as well so all the water that comes off the Gulf State Park and the school property will have two outfalls,” Acreman said. “The flow will be able to go to Fifth and Seventh. It essentially balances out the water between both of them.”

The city owns the right of way all along the ditch and the western edge contains various utility lines.

“We’re having to focus on the east half of this right of way because you’ve got utilities right here,” Acreman said, pointing to a manhole cover. “You’ve got water and sewer and in some instances we even have gas, phone and cable TV on the western half of this right of way. So we’re having to focus on the eastern half.”

On that side, surveyors found some fences the city property and some have had to be moved back. Acreman said the city has worked with residents to resolve those issues.

“We do have some encroachments and we’re having to move some fences back and make some minor corrections,” he said. “We’re trying to minimize the impact as much as possible. But we still have to leave ourselves enough room and the utility companies enough room to access their utilities and for us to maintain this ditch.

In other closures, 23rd Avenue will be blocked off at the Seventh Street right of way this week for under-the-road culvert work and 24th Avenue will be closed Oct. 29 through Nov. 2. The culvert work under 22nd Avenue was completed last week.

“We’ve got people right here on top of this project,” Acreman said. “It does affect them because it’s construction in their backyard.

“It’s a good project and we’re pleased about how quickly we’ve got this going.”

(To see a gallery of pictures from the work site, visit: http://www.gulfcoastnewstoday.com/gallery/collection_4ef367c0-1c68-11e2-8362-0019bb2963f4.html