Work begins to stop flooding on County Road 12 in Foley

By GUY BUSBY
Government Editor
guy@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 8/17/22

FOLEY — Crews are working to clear debris and silt that has caused flooding along Baldwin County 12 since Hurricane Sally struck the area in 2020, Foley officials said.The Foley City Council …

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Work begins to stop flooding on County Road 12 in Foley

Posted

FOLEY — Crews are working to clear debris and silt that has caused flooding along Baldwin County 12 since Hurricane Sally struck the area in 2020, Foley officials said.

The Foley City Council voted to hire Greenco to clean storm debris from about 11 acres of privately owned woodlands east of Alabama 59. The council voted to approve a contract with costs not to exceed $375,000.

The company's estimated cost of the project was $326,762, according to city reports.

City Administrator Mike Thompson said Baldwin County 12 has flooded in the past after heavy rains, such as the storm in 2014 in which 24 inches of rain fell in Foley in 24 hours.

Hurricane Sally, however, made the problem worse.

"What happened when Hurricane Sally came in, Hurricane Sally dropped a lot of trees and that kind of created a backup of water and as the water backed up, it made other trees die, sort of like a domino effect," Thompson said. "It was like a bunch of trees in there, and once all the trees died there, it started catching siltation and now there's beavers in there building beaver dams."

Thompson said Thursday, Aug. 11, that the work should be completed soon.

"They're probably within a week of having that cleared out now," he said. "They've been working for the past eight or 10 days down there."

Thompson said that while the blockage is on private property, the water affects other parts of Foley and Baldwin County.

"The long and short of it is, you've got this private property and you've got all this blockage and what happens when it rains instead of that water flowing on to the Bon Secour River, all that stuff backs up the water," Thompson said. "Now rather than it taking a Hurricane Sally to make the water flow across County Road 12, you can have a 2-inch rain flowing across County Road 12, which is obviously a hazard. You can't have that."

Thompson said much of the southeast area of Foley drains through the property. Water in the ditches on Juniper Street flows to Baldwin County 12 and on to the Bon Secour River.

"There's a lot of water that runs through there," Thompson said. "Everything along Juniper runs that way, for example Tanger Mall along that way, it all runs to Juniper and then down to the river. There's a very big area of Foley that drains through this stream bed."

The original cost estimate for the project was $120,000, according to city reports. Thompson said crews found more sediment and debris at the site than expected, leading to an increased cost for the project.