JACKSON, Wyo. — A construction site that is currently underway at Broadway and Willow St. is part of a five-year plan that seeks to benefit the local environment, community and to mitigate previous flooding issues in the area.
Director of Public Works, Floren Poliseo explained how this project consists of removing and replacing the current collection and conveyance system of Cache Creek, which also collects stormwater drainage. The town called the current system “very eclectic, old, and obsolete.” The project will remove 3,350 linear feet of the outdated system.
“The project at large is the Cache Creek Tube Project, it’s multi phases, multi-million dollars, and will be completed over several years,” said Poliseo.
The current construction at Broadway and Willow is estimated to be complete by the end of this month or early June.
“For the timeline, I think we are pretty close to the end for this segment of the project that is interrupting Willow and Broadway,” said Poliseo. “They’ve got some curb in but there’s a little bit more of that to do and then they are finishing the replacement of boardwalk and then they’ll be paving the street. They are finished with the underground portion and piping at this point, so it’s just a matter of closing it up.”
Poliseo explained how funding for such a large-scale project was derived from both SPET tax and capital dollars.
“This section was paid for by our current capital budget, but we were also able to get a grant from the state Department of Environmental Quality for the stormwater treatment unit,” said Poliseo.
“So that’s covering a chunk of the construction cost because it is a water quality grant and because that treatment unit is going to improve our discharge to Flat Creek by cleaning up some of the urban pollution that we contribute.”
Additionally, an environmental component of the project that aims to curb pollution, has allowed for public works to partner with the Land Trust who plans to install a natural water feature to commemorate the project’s completion.
“We partnered with the Land Trust to install a parallel line that will divert some water, just using gravity flow no pumping or anything, but it’s just another pipe that’s parallel to our larger tube that pulls water out of the tube and puts it onto that green space on the Genevieve block so that there can be a natural water feature there representing what used to be Cache Creek,” said Poliseo.
Polesio further emphasized how this natural water feature will serve as a piece of education to the public of Cache Creek as a historically significant water source to the town.
In the next five years, residents should expect to see the project unfolding across Jackson.
“It looks like it will be another five years, another treatment unit will be in FY27. The bigger sections on them are happening now. The next big one will be the area under the Rec Center and that happens FY22-23, so that’s coming soon. Then there’s going to be some at Mercill, which will probably be constructed in FY24,” said Polesio.
