Work to relieve flooding in Brickyard Bayou moving forward

GULFPORT, MS (WLOX) - For years, residents in the Brickyard Bayou area have been dealing with flooding and other problems due to overgrown waterways. They described it as overgrown, clogged and filled with pests. In just the past two years, it’s become a much different scene.

"A lot of our flooding we're told occurs because of overgrowth and congestion and clutter in these waterways," said Mayor Billy Hewes.

On WLOX News this Week, Hewes told Doug Walker about the city’s plan to use $1 million from a Community Development Block Grant to clear those waterways and install new drainage culverts.

“We received a substantial amount of money to come in and basically clear out, de-snag, take the old trees and vines and clutter and just make a better flow way for waters to come through,” Hewes said.

Much of that work, from 8th Avenue to 18th Avenue, has been completed. Last week, the city notified residents from 19th to 30th Avenue that their portion of the project will begin this week.

The main goal in clearing these waterways is to alleviate flooding concerns for residents in the low-lying areas.

One resident said seeing the project become a reality has been outstanding. Hewes hopes to do similar work in other over grown areas as well.

“From Orange Grove on down, that have these persistent problems that we cleared the down stream, the north-south and east-west areas where these waterways are, make the water quicker to flow,” Hewes said. “It should have a good impact on some of the challenges we’re seeing from a flooding standpoint.”

Construction work on the current phase of the project is expected to be completed by September 2019.

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