A view of the swollen Schuylkill River at the Fairmount Water Works

As Hurricane Irene blew through Philadelphia last weekend, PWD's water and sewer infrastructure was put to the test. How did we do? Our infrastructure was designed to manage hurricanes and, with notable exceptions in very low-lying areas, the water was kept where it belonged. Even in Manayunk, where the floodwaters inundated Main Street, well-prepared citizens minimized the damage as much as possible.

Maybe it's not really a report card if you're grading yourself, but here’s how PWD stacked up by the numbers:

• PWD wastewater treatment plants received almost 1 billion gallons of stormwater, more than twice their normal volume, and maintained performance.
• PWD cleared 400 inlets in proactive preparation for Irene, and that number—along with the help of citizens—is, according to Mayor Nutter, "a great part of why we didn't have as much flooding as we could have possibly had."  
• More than 55 PWD employees worked over the weekend to answer calls and pump out flooded basements.  
• The Schuylkill and Delaware rivers crested at 13.5 ft. and 9.77 ft., respectively, in Philadelphia.
  

Philadelphia held up well overall but with saturated ground, trees did fall, electricity went out, and basements did flood. If you’re cleaning up, you’re not alone. After the jump, some tips to help with flooded basements.

Rendering of Venice Island project in Manayunk

WHYY's NewsWorks asked the question: How would the new Venice Island water basin have fared in Hurricane Irene?

If you were tuned in to local TV news over the weekend, you probably saw the situation in Manayunk: flooded roads near Main Street and Shurs Lane. Could the underground storage basin on nearby Venice Island—construction is just underway—have helped alleviate the flooding?

"At 400 feet long, 75 feet wide and 25 feet deep, the new basin will catch and temporarily store diverted storm flow from the sanitary sewer running along the Manayunk Canal. But would the new tank have prevented or lessened the hurricane-level flooding that doused part of Main Street over the weekend?

The short answer, officials say: Probably.

'This is a big tank but this was also a pretty good storm -- about 5 ½ inches over a 24-hour period,' [PWD spokeswoman Joanne] Dahme said in an email Monday. 'Without the modeling to confirm, we believe it would have worked well in this storm as rainfall was fairly steady, dispersed over a long period of time.'"

Click here for more information on the Venice Island project and to sign up for email updates.

Image: University City District

It's time to play Name That Public Space: The stretch of Market Street between 30th Street Station and the former Post Office building is about to be transformed from a parking lane into a 40-foot-wide sidewalk by Labor Day. Future phases of the project include tree planting, food kiosks, and tables and chairs with umbrellas (see rendering above). While this all sounds great, the University City District is trying to figure out what to call the new site. Go here to learn more about the project and submit your suggestion to UCD by September 30; the winner gets bragging rights and a $500 Amtrak gift certificate.

And while we're on the topic of open public spaces, PlanPhilly has an article about the pedestrian plazas we mentioned last week in the MOTU post:

"Essentially, Stober said, the city is looking for community groups to come up with a plan to put down some sort of barrier—like boulders—between pedestrians and traffic, as well as things like planters to enliven the space. Applicants will also have to provide for maintenance of their plazas, as well as general liability insurance—so they'll need to be incorporated to bid for a slot.

In return, the city will paint the plazas green to distinguish them for the surrounding street and will also tap into $400,000 in Streets and Commerce department operating funds that have been made budgeted for the project. Money can be used to buy maintenance equipment or furniture and other amenities."

 

Rendering of completed Venice Island project

Beginning next week, Manayunk's Venice Island—a strip of land situated between the Manayunk Canal and the Schuylkill River—will undergo a $46 million makeover that includes the construction of an underground storage basin, a new performing arts center, a children's play area and a new parking lot. This project is so big we've created our own blog category for it, as well as a web page with more details and updates as construction progresses. The underground basin will have the capacity to store four million gallons of water in an effort to protect and improve the health of the Schuylkill River. And, as reported in today's NewsWorks article, Venice Island's other new amenities will benefit the site as well:

"For decades, the Venice Island rec center was the site of community programs, summer swimming and nearly year-round athletics. A city photo from 1960 shows a tidy waterfront playground tucked between then-working railroad tracks and the Schuylkill, a lifetime away from the forbidding, overgrown place Venice Island became in recent years.

In its new incarnation, the hockey rink and 3,200 square-foot playground area at Venice Island will be replaced one-for-one. The pool is being scrapped in favor of a spray ground area, and the basketball courts will be enlarged slightly to make them NCAA-regulation sized.

The performing arts center will also serve as a home base for the Parks and Recreation Department's Young Performers Theater Camp, which currently operates out of rented space at the Annenberg Center, [PWD's Joanne] Dahme said.

'This is a tight little island, so we're trying to squeeze as much as we can on here,' she said."

Another rendering of the site after the jump.