Sunday, May 20, 2000
Industrial park has issues ... on runoff of water
By Erik Burriss
Staff Writer
Before anything else happens at Tiffin's new industrial park, the city needs to address drainage issues.
However, the county needs to sign off on the proposed work. Since unannexed land almost completely surrounds Eagle Rock, the county's ditches will have to handle the runoff. Improvements made to the Eagle Rock Business Park cannot increase the amount of water flowing into the county's ditches, County Engineer Jim Nimz said.
Development of a property increases the amount and rate of water running off it because parking lots and roofs do not hold water like an empty field would. Increased flow rates could cause ditches to flood.
Preliminary engineering work for the project was completed by the engineering firm Hank and Associates.
"There will be increased runoff from the industrial park," Hank and Associates' Doug Turney said. "We want to make sure we won't be impacting anyone else."
The city will deal with the drainage issues as either two or three separate projects, Mayor Bernie Hohman said.
The first project involves the southern 40 acres of the site south of Tyber Road, where storm water drains to the southwest.
The bulk of the project will be the construction of 1,348-foot-long swale connecting to a county ditch across Maule Road/CR 11 from the park, Hohman said.
The swale will detain the area's runoff, slowing the rate at which water enters the ditch, the mayor said.
Construction and engineering costs for the southern section, including landscaping and tiling, are estimated to be about $70,000. Monday night, the City Council will have the second reading of an ordinance hiring Hank and Associates to plan the project.
The second and potentially third phases &emdash; involving the northern 92 acres &emdash; are on a slower track. Stormwater in the section of the park north of Tyber Road flows to the northwest, Hohman said.
Hank and associates recommended the construction of an 1,800-foot-long swale along the eastern edge of the site and a 2,350 feet of new storm sewer running from the northwest corner of the park to an existing sewer at the intersection of CR 11 and TR 132.
The swale and sewer are also estimated to cost $70,000 and would need to be built to provide drainage for a proposed speculative building, Hohman said.
Additionally, the engineers also recommended a 6-acre detention pond be built at the northernmost end of the park. The pond would be located where existing power lines would make building construction difficult and where the depth of the bedrock make it easier to construct the pond, the mayor said.
Hank and Associates estimated that the pond and tiling for the northern section of the park would cost about $179,000.