Edgewater Drive to Close for Major Storm Pipe Work

Scenic Edgewater Drive will close to traffic beginning Tuesday for about two weeks. Crews are beginning a massive, $3 million that will have major commute impacts in the next year.

On Tuesday, crews will begin digging a 10-foot hole into Edgewater Drive at the Orangewood Avenue intersection. Keystone Excavators Inc. is installing storm drainage pipes that will jut into St. Joseph Sound. As crews finish on Edgewater, they will move east, linking 8-foot-long, 8-ton pieces of storm pipe along a nearly half-mile section of Orangewood Avenue.

“This is going to be a complicated project. This is going to challenge your patience,” Doug Hutchens, public works and utilities director, told about 30 southside residents at a public meeting Tuesday. “This is something that needs to be done.”

When finished, Hutchens said, the construction would alleviate stormwater flooding for Orangewood residents and those on surrounding streets.

“This project doesn’t only help the people who front this pipeline,” he said, but it also helps neighboring streets because the water will have somewhere to go.

"It's breaking the eggs to make the omelet," he said later to Dunedin Patch.

Residents were irritated when officials warned that vehicle access to their homes would be limited and mail delivery and trash pickup hindered for four to six weeks. Hutchens suggested alternative parking options: in each other’s driveways, at the library, on side streets. He also suggested crews would wheel trash barrels to the end of the street and return them as a courtesy to residents.

“Can I park my boat at the library?” longtime resident Sam Porterfield said. Porterfield lives near Douglas and Orangewood avenues and would be inconvenienced for a combined four months, according to the city's construction schedule.

“That’s a good question,” Hutchens replied.

Officials are working with Clearwater officials to divert all Edgewater Drive traffic for the next few weeks. Both southbound and northbound traffic will be diverted using Sunset Point Road and Main Street (State Road 580) and Highland/Patricia Avenue (as a parallel north-south route). (See the map of the proposed detour among the images above.)

Important to note:

• Crews will typically work between 7 a.m. and 4 or 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
• Brick roadways disrupted during the excavation will be restored. Any bricks destroyed will be matched with brick from areas already paved over or replicated.
• The storm pipe juts far into St. Joseph Sound so the stormwater distributes evenly and does not erode surrounding shoreline.
• Stormwater drainage improvements will not change residents' flood zone designation.
• City officials said they are working with schools on how the project will affect the students' commute.
• Mailboxes may be relocated temporarily.