Repairs to 70 locations damaged during Florence underway in Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The City of Wilmington began work this week on another major project to repair stormwater drainage pipes damaged during Hurricane Florence.

Failures to underground pipes during Florence’s torrential rains have caused cave-ins on city streets at more than 70 locations throughout the city. The project started on Shirley Road and work at all locations is expected to be completed within six months.

Shirley Road construction (Photo: City of Wilmington)

The city has been approved for FEMA reimbursement for the $2.4 million project.

This is one of six major projects to make needed repairs to city infrastructure after Hurricane Florence struck last year. After addressing immediate repairs following the storm, staff worked for several months to identify all the city streets, sidewalks, buildings and drainage infrastructure across the city that need to be repaired. The city also had to get federal officials to inspect and approve each of the repair sites to make sure the city could receive federal/state reimbursement before the projects could go forward.

Because the city has to pay for all of these repairs out-of-pocket with taxpayer dollars, the city says federal inspections and approval were critical to make sure the city gets reimbursed for as much as possible.

So far, the city has spent or appropriated more than $34 million in response to the storm and expects to get much of that reimbursed.

Status of repair projects can be tracked at here.