MONDAY, JULY 21ST UPDATE
Council Meeting at 5:30PM at City Hall, the Council voted UNANIMOUSLY to:
REJECT Fifth Alternative Design proposed by Oswit Group (follow link) and adopt Staff’s recommended Fourth Alternative Design for the South Palm Canyon Drive Low Water Crossing Bridge Replacement at Arenas Canyon South, City project No. 06-18, Federal Aid Project No. BR-NBIL(502) (the “Project”)
Authorize City Staff to finalize environmental review for the Project; and
Authorize City Engineer to finalize the plans, specifications for the Project and proceed to bid the Project, following completion of environmental review for the Project.
Over a dozen community residents spoke in person and ten spoke over ZOOM to express their approval for the City’s long-standing flood control solution for our Canyon flood issue. It is only due to the heartfelt pleas and testimonies from the residents tonight as well as from other community meetings, and public comments sent to the City that we have advanced our project to this point.
THANK YOU!!! But there is more work to do. Please check in and stay tuned as this project progresses to come before the City Council for funding approval.
On Thursday, May 29th, the City hosted a Community Meeting at the Indian Canyon Golf Course, North Clubhouse. On Monday, June 2nd, the City hosted a ZOOM version of this meeting. The City engineer presented a slideshow explaining the project in detail–we have requested the slideshow to post here soon. Please see a summary of the information, and some testimony from neighbors regarding the project. The Palm Springs Post reporter, Mark Talkington, published an article about the meeting on the 29th, follow link to article.
YET ANOTHER FLOOD-CONTROL CONCEPT PROPOSED BY OSWIT
It was shared late in the ZOOM meeting that the City would be meeting to review a fifth concept from Oswit. The main concerns in spending time to review this new concept are–
- City has allocated up to $100,000 to vet it and determine if it is even feasible. If you recall, the prior four concepts from this group were all found to be INFEASIBLE by great factors, and the City paid over $112,000 to find this out.
- The deadline for the funding from CalTrans has not been fully calculated and it is possible we are already at a critical timeframe that the project must be approved IMMEDIATELY or we will not be able to get reimbursed for this project.
- It may be possible that the City spends up to $100,000 attempting to vet this concept, added to the previous $112,000 for a total of $212,000 spent AND we may miss our funding deadline for ANY project to be done for flood control for our community.
- The community has yet to be invited to participate in the review and discussion of this fifth concept. So as of now, we will not fully know about the concept, if Dokken vetted it favorably or not, the cost of it, the timeframe to be able to submit for CalTrans reimbursements (trigger of deadline on these funds), etc.
- The worst aspect is the community would not be able to give input on the fifth concept until the Council Hearing to approve the project. While in the meantime, the main opponents to every aspect of this project will have intimate knowledge about this concept, just as they have since 2019 when they submitted their four infeasible concepts.
FIRE DEPARTMENT APPROVAL
The Fire Chief, Paul Alvarado, spoke expressing how important this project is to ensure the safety to the residents and his team responsible for rescuing folks when the unpredictability of storms traps residents in place. “Both of these severe weather events put citizens and firefighters in harrowing rescue situations,” Alvarado said. “I’m here tonight as your fire chief to tell you I support that bridge. I need to make sure that my rescuers can get to calls where they need to go.”
VALENTINE’S DAY 2019 FLOODING STORIES
Several residents shared emotional stories of how they have suffered strokes and heart attacks and had there been any issue with the access of the ambulances, they would not be alive today. They did not chose to live in an area where that should be a concern to them or our neighbors. One resident pointed out we are the PS community with the oldest residents, and we all will have increased need for such emergency services, and we have to consider our neighbors who may not fare as well when the storms hit or the road is closed. Not to mention the people who are trapped in the community, such as on 2/14/2019. Stories were shared of cleaning ladies trapped in our neighborhood, not being able to go home to care for their children. And of City engineering employees dispatched to the area earlier in the day, who were ultimately trapped south of the flooded closed road and having to stay until the wee hours to try and safely pass to the north.
VALENTINE’S DAY 2019 FLOOD RESCUES
The Fire Department Incident Report for 2/14/2019 shows two water rescues were made. Contrary to the anecdotal stories of little flooding and no impact to our community, the fire incident report clearly shows that the road was closed and barricaded. In spite of the closure, one car was adrift on the road and needed swift-water rescue. And, one person attempted to leave the community by walking through the golf course and was stranded on an island as the waters rushed around him–he also needed rescue. Click here for the fire incident report.
CHANNEL DESIGN
The main channel lined with rocks will be placed on the EXISTING grade. Only the concrete portion of the channel closest to the roadway will be dug down to accommodate the flood flow under the street on to the golf course. Dokken Engineering, CalTrans, RiversideCountyFloodControl all agree that the golf course has natural drainage leading directly to the wash that will carry the flood waters safely away from the area. Even some of the plans submitted by Oswit included carrying the water via this route. See 2023 FEMA flood map showing low-lying blue areas that will carry the water to the wash, going across the golf course using the floodway shown in blue/red hatch, that was designed as part of the Murray Canyon levee.
FUNDING
As with all roadway projects, the City after bidding will go back to the agencies providing funding and ask for the updated sum needed for the project. Of the five current bridge projects going on in Palm Springs right now, this is exactly how it worked.
CONSTRUCTION IMPACT
South Palm Canyon Drive is over four lanes wide (about 61 feet, with a standard lane needing only 12 feet of width). During construction only two lanes will be built at a time. The other two will allow flow into and out of our community. Street parking is already prohibited by a red-curb no-parking zone in this area, so minor impact to trail hiker parking would be anticipated.