Cole County to start stormwater, road project in neighborhood affected by flooding

People in one Cole County neighborhood will soon see some major stormwater and road improvements after several homes flooded in the area last year.

Cole County Public Works held an open house Tuesday for residents in the Meadowbrook Estates Subdivision, which is near the intersection of Highway 54 and Highway 179.

Although it is still early in the design phase of the project, Cole County Engineer Eric Landwehr said the project will likely cost $1 million to $2 million for the area with about 90-100 homes.

“People, they expect whenever they go home at night, they want to drive on a decent road and they don’t want their houses to flood,” Landwehr said. “And so we’ve tried to address that in budgeting some of these projects.”

The Meadowbrook Estates Subdivision project will include some overlaying and replacement of aging streets. It will also include replacement of rundown stormwater pipes, drains, inlets and the addition of larger culverts under roads to handle more water.

“We want to make sure we size it plenty big to where if we get another one of these massive rains, it will handle the water and not cause any backup issues into people’s houses,” Landwehr said.

Landweher said crews will hopefully start work on the project next spring.

The county is also getting ready to start a similar project in the Crossroads subdivision off Highway 54 this fall. It is also looking at doing one in the Westview Heights neighborhood off Highway 50 in the next few years.

But it is a different story inside Jefferson City limits.

ABC 17 News has been reporting for months on the widespread flooding and stormwater issues in the city. But the city says it is not able to do many large-scale stormwater projects.

That is partly because the county gets about $3.4 million over five years for stormwater and other related projects from the county’s half-cent capital improvement tax.

The city, with much more urban development, only gets about $2 million for stormwater projects over the same period from its half-cent capital improvement tax.

The county generates more money through its sales tax since it covers a larger area. The city also allocates more funds generated from its sales tax toward things such as public safety and other city services.