Waterlogged yards and a soggy school near First Avenue in Athens will see drier days with a new drainage improvements project that begins Monday.

For decades, moderately heavy rain in the area resulted in standing water and wet feet for those living in the area of iAcademy at Athens Elementary School and the surrounding neighborhood. The installation of larger drainage pipe and the redirection of some rainwater to Town Creek should alleviate the issues, said Athens Public Works Director James Rich.

Dropping off and picking up students at the elementary school is a challenge in the mornings and afternoons when it rains, he said.

“It’s gonna be a good project,” Rich said of the $609,650 drainage improvement project. “Those existing inlets (in the project area) were installed in the 1940s or 1950s and are undersized, so replacing them will help.”

Redirecting a portion of the rainwater into Town Creek should also help, he said.

The project was made possible by a $450,000 Community Development Block Grant and $159,560 in matching funds paid by the city, a total of $609,560.

iAcademy Principal Cindy Davis wrote a letter of support to accompany the grant application. She said the school rests over a natural spring.

“We are constantly challenged with moisture in our building,” she wrote. “The excessive moisture and lack of appropriate drainage systems around our campus impact our parking lot and sidewalks as water floods those areas often.”

State Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, notified the city it won the grant in December 2017. The grant covers the project itself plus the groundwork to prepare for it, which will be done by Hawkins Groundwork. The grant also covers the administration of the grant, which will be done by Community Consultants of Huntsville.

Under the terms of the grant, the city has 120 calendar days to complete the drainage project. That means it could be done as early as Aug. 30, assuming no work is performed on the weekends.

Pipe path

The new drainage pipes will wrap around three sides of Athens Elementary School, starting on the north side, continuing around the east side and ending on the south side. From there the pipe will continue west along First Avenue from the school all the way to Coman Street.

Three trunks of pipe will extend from First Avenue for one block along Horton, Sanders and North Malone streets, then extend east and west along Pryor Street between those three streets. The final section of pipe will extend from First Avenue down Horton Street to West Hobbs, then turn west for a block to Coman Street.