Neighborhood Near CCSU Hit By Flooding, Overflows Into Homes Multiple Times Since July

Extensive flooding and runoffs into the basements of homes that recurred after heavy rains in July in a neighborhood near CCSU is raising concerns that the city’s outmoded catch basins and sewage system “is putting our safety, health and property values at risk,” according to a Roxbury Road homeowner.

A number of residents of a neighborhood to the southwest of CCSU, including Newbury, Hampton, Allen, Brighton streets and Eton Place and Roxbury Road came to the City Council meeting on September 13th, along with a resident the Overlook Avenue neighborhood, to talk about massive flooding in and around their homes.

Climate change was a common theme noted as a contributing cause, as many residents discussed increasing problems in recent years, but residents also discussed existing problems with city drainage pipes.

Resident Frank Chase was one of a number of residents in the Allen and Stanley Street area who talked about thousands of dollars on flood damage repairs, water pump and drain improvements and insurance paid by residents because of flooding.

Residents described streets with water deep enough to float boats and basements filling with water. One resident described a new water pump that burned out from the intensity of the flooding, spilling water into children’s bedrooms.

Residents discussed rain as well as sewerage flooding into their basements, and some residents talked about insects appearing in their homes, which they attributed to the poor drainage. A number of residents at the meeting were clearly emotional, as they pleaded for quick action to address the problems.

A number of residents said that “shiny” taxpayer-funded construction, like the Beehive Bridge on Main Street, are nice, but that they felt that basic infrastructure improvements, like drainage in their neighborhoods, has been made a lower priority to those projects.

Area resident John McNamara, who is a candidate for Council, himself, in Ward 4, wrote recently at NB Politicus,

The problems near Allen Street (including Eton Place, Roxbury Road, Newbury, Hampton and Brighton streets) and Overlook Avenue are not new. Capital Improvements recommended and adopted by the Common Council over the last five years, pinpointed both Allen Street and Overlook Avenue as sites for “upgrading the storm drainage system” and the “replacement of undersized and deteriorated storm and sanitary sewer mains.”

Improving the sewer and storm water system at two of its weakest points, however, has not been given a high priority. While other infrastructure projects have gotten attention and money in recent years, officials have told residents that they are waiting for the allocations to implement their sewer upgrades. In fiscal year 2020, for example, reconstruction of Allen Street was slated for action in 2022 at a cost of $5 million to be paid by a combination of state, federal or local funds. Every year since, however, the planned improvements have been pushed into the future. In the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) adopted with the municipal budget in June, the Allen Street project was put off again to 2027-2028 at an estimated cost of $6.7 million. The Overlook Avenue upgrades have faced similar delays with a $2 million project adopted in 2021 scheduled for implementation in 2022. In June for the fiscal year that began on July 1, the Administration and Common Council had pushed the date out to 2025. Whether the commitment of $2 million just promised in ARPA funds will expedite the Overlook Avenue project remains to be seen.

Source: City Needs To Address Neighborhood Flooding Issues Sooner Rather Than Later, NB Politicus, September 11, 2023.

State Senator Rick Lopes (D-6) said that the problems in the neighborhood around Roxbury Road and Allen Street are worse that they were ten years ago, noting that, during recent rains, flooding made multiple streets impassible. Sen. Lopes urged the city to take action to address the problem immediately.

Ald. Robert Smedley (R-4), who, as President Pro-Tempore, is the Republican leader on the Council, joined a number of Council members in expressing sympathy from the affected residents. Smedley noted that the city is presently experienced unusually significant flooding, and discussed that the city’s action in addressing the Allen, Roxbury and Stanley neighborhood flooding was a $6.7 application to the state for grant funding, about which, he said, the city has not heard back. Saying that the city cannot pay for it, Smedley suggested that the city wanted the state legislators’ help with the application.

But McNamara pointed to funds that the city may already have available.

“New Britain has received $56 million in municipal aid to address a variety of needs after the pandemic and much of the funding has gone to high profile capital projects such as a $20 million Department of Public Works facility, up to $11 million for a new Osgood Park and $5 million to subsidize the fiber optic wiring of the city by GoNetSpeed,” McNamara noted on NB Politicus, adding, “Remaining ARPA funds would appear to be the city’s best option for funding now, an allocation that can reverse years and years of delay in addressing the flooding threat to both neighborhoods.”

Editor’s note: John McNamara is also a contributing writer with the New Britain Progressive.

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