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Crews have worked for nearly two years to help address one of San Marco’s most frequently flooded intersections.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Rainy days always bring attention to San Marco – where LaSalle Street and San Marco Boulevard regularly flood with consistent rain.
City leaders are optimistic a new pump station will bring relief.
“Flooding, eh, when it rains, it gets pretty nasty down here,” said Assistant General Manager of Row House Allison Moses. “They do close down the road.”
Moses vividly remembers her entire room of rowing machines flooding in September.
That was when there wasn’t even a hurricane.
“Probably every three months or so,” said Moses. “We, and some of our neighbors on San Marco here, have had to shut our doors.”
Moses has a front-row seat for the construction of a new pump station, capable of pumping 70,000 gallons of water per minute out of the street and into the St. Johns River.
“It all works on paper, right, until an event comes,” said Jacksonville City Council Member Joe Carlucci. “Then, you get to see how it functions in the real world.”
Carlucci says Phase 1 of the project should wrap up at the end of next month, meaning the station will finally be pumping water after nearly two years of construction.
However, then it’ll be on to Phase 2.
“Let’s just picture a cup with a bunch of water in it, and there’s a bunch of coffee straws,” said Carlucci. “Those are very skinny straws. Water is able to be pulled out of the cup but at a smaller amount. Phase 2 is replacing all those coffee straws with Big Gulp straws.”
Carlucci says that the second phase of replacing pipes will take through the end of the year and should wrap up early next year.
Moses is optimistic that just getting the station online in a few short weeks will help ensure her customers can do all their rowing inside rather than down the street.
“Once it’s finally done, I think it will revitalize San Marco,” said Moses. “Help keep the community intact, and dry.”
Carlucci said the station coming online at the end of March will help the areas of Landon Park and Children’s Way with their flooding as well.
Right now, those pump stations have to help share the load, but they won’t have to anymore.
