MIDLAND, Texas — The storm drainage system in and around Midland is something citizens drive over everyday, but do not notice until it breaks or rains
On Tuesday, the Midland City Council agreed to allocate around $1,410,534.25 to replace the storm drainage pipes near Grafa and Cowden Park.
While that might sound like a big chunk of change, it is actually going to save taxpayers money in the long run.
"We definitely want to be more proactive than reactive," said Jose Ortiz, Director of Engineering Services for the City of Midland. "So instead of waiting for that to happen we want to get in there now because it will wind up saving costs."
The city discovered the pipes were failing after running a camera through the pipes.
“That’s when we discovered that they were failures along the pipe," Ortiz said. "It's not a matter of if these pipes will fail, it's a matter of when."
The city plans on replacing the corrugated metal pipes with concrete ones.
“It comes down to aged infrastructure," Ortiz said. "Midland, it’s just like any other city in Texas, it is getting older and we have to address these issues.”
Jerry Morales, the City of Midland Mayor, says replacing the drainage pipes is about more than functionality, but also about safety.
“We can’t see it on the surface, but underneath is where it’s cracking and caving in," Morales said. "We don’t want there to be bad flooding or have people get hurt.”
The city says they are trying to get ahead of the problem, but this storm
drainage project at the park will be the the first of many.
“We have over 60 miles of storm drainage system," Ortiz said. "We’re gonna have to basically take an inventory of those lines."
Ortiz believes they will end up finding more items and pipes that need to be repaired.
The city says they will get started on the Grafa park storm drain replacement project after the holidays around the beginning of 2020.