El Camino Flooding: Where’s Roto-Rooter?

April 8, 2020

Here's one more water-related post to follow the last two on sea-levels and drinking water. We had two nice, moderately heavy storms over the weekend and into Monday. We needed the rain everywhere except on El Camino. Bad flooding in a dozen spots on our main thoroughfare has been a known issue for decades. I just don't get why Caltrans won't do something simple to fix the known hot spots. Yes, we have a multi-hundreds of millions of dollars upgrade in the works, but with the massive state shortfall from COVID-19 I'll bet roads drop down the priority list.

In the meantime, why can't Caltrans just get into some of the drains and clear them out? We know the drains drain–just not fast enough. I don't want to put it back on the city's Public Works who have already stepped up on ECR maintenance beyond their remit, but it might have to come to that. "All plumbing is local" to paraphrase Tip O'Neill. Here's the recurring flood at the end of my street. There's a drain right there. The drain on the other corner drains well enough if I keep it clear, which I do. The flooded one drains after about a day–there had been no rain for more than 12 hours when I took this photo. Where's Roto-Rooter?

ECR Flooding_0420

Posted in Climate, State Ievel issues, Streets of Burlingame, Water

5 responses to “El Camino Flooding: Where’s Roto-Rooter?”

Nate Lyday

April 9, 2020

Is this a highway or somehow otherwise Caltrans’ right of way? If not, it’s not for them to handle.
Joe

April 9, 2020

Yes, it’s a state highway — 82. Otherwise B’game Public Works would be on it fast.
Cassandra

April 9, 2020

Let’s just get on it- better to apologize than ask permission?
BMW

April 11, 2020

Joe – A lot of this is Caltrans’ to fix no question.
But check out the catchment area of the drain in the photo. It’s the entire long block of Newlands, Central and most of Crescent and Pershing Park. All of that surface water drains to this corner. That’s a lot for just two drains to process.
http://bgmaps.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index?id=bdf2afe0084b4527be99c7a6b2e0941d
If there were intermediate drains on the Burlingame part of the neighborhood this wouldn’t be as big a problem. Same problem all the way up and down ECR.
For fun, check out how many drains the City has on Broadway. There’s easily 50 on that short commercial section. No flooding there, but maybe a tad overdone.
Joe

April 11, 2020

As usual Bimmer, you have amazing insights to add. Thank you. When I walk the dog this afternoon I will just double check that the map doesn’t miss any, but I’m betting not.
That explains the initial overflow perfectly. I still have the question of why 12 hours after the last rainfall and well after the gutters are dry there is such a large pool of water there. I’ll bet a roll of Charmin that if we ran a camera down there we would see roots, debris or something partially clogging it up.

ABOUT THE VOICE

The Burlingame Voice is dedicated to informing and empowering the Burlingame community. Our blog is a public forum for the discussion of issues that relate to Burlingame, California. Opinions posted on the Burlingame Voice are those of the poster and commenter and not necessarily the opinion of the Editorial Board. Comments are subject to the Terms of Use.