“You don’t think about drainage issues at this high point in town,” said Ed Tanner, Bristol’s Principal Planner, from the site of the Town’s most recently-completed stormwater drainage project, just south of the police station on Metacom Avenue. “But we do have issues here. Once you cross Bayview Avenue, that water's heading towards Silver Creek and the high school; on this side of Bayview Avenue, it's heading towards Tanyard Brook.”

Now, and until Pare Construction returns to plant grass and put the finishing touches on this new drainage system in the spring, the inner workings are exposed.

“You can see how this parking lot pitches, and all this runoff went into the grass and would go towards Jacky’s, work its way down Franklin Street, and eventually make its way to Tanyard Brook,” said Tanner. When that happens during a heavy rain event, it not only overwhelms the natural drainage system (made unnatural by decades of development) and causes flooding issues, the water that has rinsed over the streets is pretty dirty by the time it reaches Tanyard Brook and ultimately, Bristol Harbor. “This has been on our radar for quite a few years,” said Tanner.

When completed in the spring, the site won’t look like much of anything — some added gravel parking spots at the police station, with a strip of grass. But big things are happening under the surface.

“When the water comes washing off the parking lot, it's actually pitched towards Metacom and will go over these stones, and that whole area is a filter bed,” said Tanner. “There's special soil in there with sand under the grass and that's where the water will infiltrate into the into the ground….That's a detention basin which will hold back that water and let it out slowly through that concrete weir on the other side.” At that point, the storm water will have an opportunity to infiltrate into the ground, so there will be less water going off the site, and what does leave will be cleaner. “I don't think there'll be a lot leaving the site,” said Tanner. “It's been designed pretty well.”

Tanner had high praise for the contractors, Pare Engineering and Flynn Construction, which executed the projects while keeping the police station fully operational.

Designed for a 25-year storm, the project was partially paid for by a Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) 319 Water Quality Grant, similar the arrangement that paid for water quality projects at the Guiteras School and Bristol Golf Course in recent years. Of the $282,000 total cost, the DEM paid 60%, about $172,000 and change. “We paid for the design and the engineering and they paid for most of the construction,” said Tanner.

According to Maj. Brian Burke of the Bristol Police, the project will achieve two goals for the department: it will reduce the flooding that was making the southwest corner of the property unusable and flooding the neighbors, and it will provide additional parking for the added personnel and equipment that the department brings in for special events.

“I think this is the first significant project that's been completed up here since the dedication of the building in 1978,” he said.