Thrive
Council allocates $5.1 million to Salt Creek drainage project
The St. Petersburg City Council unanimously approved a $5.1 million contract Feb. 6 to help protect neighborhoods around flood-prone Lake Maggiore from inundation experienced during Hurricane Milton.
Administrators accelerated the design-build project as part of Mayor Ken Welch’s post-storm St. Pete Agile Resiliency plan. Miami Beach-based Ric-Man Construction will complete preconstruction work for the Basin C Resiliency Salt Creek Outfall Pump Station.
The project intertwines with plans to transform vacant property along the creek into a nature preserve, which council members also unanimously approved at the Feb. 6 meeting. Brejesh Prayman, St. Petersburg’s engineering and capital improvements director, conveyed the “sheer magnitude” of the stormwater basin – a topographical depression.
Prayman explained that excessive rainfall flows from surrounding basins into a large area around Lake Maggiore. “So, it’s already big enough, and now it’s getting impacted by all of its neighbors,” he said.
“The Basin C project was an early deliverable in the Stormwater Master Plan, as well as Shore Acres,” Prayman added. “Those were the two basins because we knew those general areas were problem areas.”
A graphic highlighting area stormwater basins, with Lake Maggiore in the center. Screengrab, city documents.
The Lake Maggiore drainage project encompasses four initiatives totaling $47.3 million. Those include Barlett Lake dredging ($3.5 million) and Salt Creek channel improvements ($1.8 million) to increase hydraulic flow capacity.
Design work for the first two aspects is nearly complete. Administrators have accelerated the timeline for the latter two – a $30 million pump station near 18th Avenue and 4th Street South and a $12 million secondary outfall gate that empties into Lake Maggiore.
“You’re looking at 40 feet of topography going towards Lake Maggiore,” Prayman said. “That’s the intensity of that flow.”
He said officials increased the pump station’s proposed capacity in Milton’s aftermath. They will also create a bypass pipe as surrounding roads limit their ability to widen Salt Creek.
The city will purchase nearly three acres of vacant property along the creek, making the project possible. Councilmember Gina Driscoll has long thought the parcels fronting 4th Street, 18th Avenue and 17th Avenue South could provide additional green space to counter rapid development.
Her colleagues and administrators, realizing flood management and education opportunities, agreed. The city will now offer the seller $2.9 million.
St. Petersburg officials plan to transform vacant property bifurcated by Salt Creek (right) into a city preserve. Photo: Google Street View.
At a Jan. 23 committee meeting, Mike Jefferis, community enrichment administrator, said the new park would feature a “nice walkway,” lamps, benches, street landscaping and a structure to house the new pump station. He noted the property, bifurcated by Salt Creek, would serve as a marshland preserve with native plants and trees and a flood barrier for homes to the west.
“It’s a win-win in our eyes,” Jefferis told the Committee of the Whole.
At the Feb. 6 meeting, Driscoll said she “couldn’t be happier” and “can’t wait to see what we do with this” property. Council Chair Copley Gerdes called the intertwined projects an “all-around team effort.”
The city has already received a $10.75 million grant for the new $30 million pump station. A 66-inch force main pipe will carry water from a flood control gate upstream from the property, east of 3rd Street, to the mostly underground facility.
A project overview. Screengrab, city documents.
The system will help officials keep Salt Creek and Lake Maggiore’s water levels during extreme rainfall or storm surge events. Prayman said creating a depressed wetland and restoring the area’s natural habitat would also improve water quality.
He said the flood control gate and bypass system would not negatively impact residents. Prayman noted anyone who lives within the expansive storm basis would benefit from the projects.
“Right now, the gate is on Lake Maggiore,” he explained. “If the gates are closer to the open water body (Tampa Bay), we can control that water level within Lake Maggiore and the channel much more efficiently.”
