Efforts Underway to Control Flooding on the Delaware
Construction crews will begin installing a new flood prevention system in Yardley Borough, Bucks County.
KYW's Brad Segall reports the system is designed to keep the Delaware River from backing up onto roads and into homes and businesses when the river rises over its banks.
It's an ongoing effort to mitigate the effects of flooding in Yardley, with the installation of more than a dozen backflow preventers in the Rivermawr neighborhood which is nestled between the river and the canal.
Council President Joe Hunter said the federal government will pick up the cost of the nearly $200,000 project which he hopes will keep the town dry when the Delaware overflows its banks:
"What happens when the creeks and the river rise, the water backs up through these pipes and come out the storm drains in the community and so this will prevent that water from backing up and coming out into the storm drains."
The system is expected to handle up to 22-feet of water. He says it will take a few weeks to complete the project. The borough was decimated by three major floods between 2004 and 2006 and more than two dozen homes have been elevated to keep them out of harm's way.
