The Ripon City Council recently hired DSR Construction, Inc. to handle the work on the Wilma Avenue Driveways Project.

The reason for that has to do with the possibility of flooding in the event of intense storms. Three properties in the 500 block of Wilma Avenue could be hit the hardest.

"(Those) properties are unique for the fact the pad elevation of the homes on these parcels are below the adjacent roadway, resulting in on-site stormwater not able to flow in to the public right of way," said City of Ripon Engineering Supervisor Elizabeth Quilici in her report to elected leaders at last month's meeting.

Several contributing factors include the Wilma Avenue roundabout in 2007 raising the grade of the adjacent roadway affecting those properties. "It was staff's understanding (the roadway) did not change the grade of the drainage of the subject properties since it never drained to the roadway but rather to the adjacent property to the east," she said.

That adjacent property is owned by Ripon Christian Schools. In 2003, Quilici noted that RC built a field behind the homes, approximately one to two feet higher than the former orchard, in turn, limiting the flow of water towards those homes on Wilma Avenue. However, one of the property owners blames the nearby Fulton Avenue overpass as diverting more water to the area.

The property owner is in favor of the yard being raised with more dirt being brought in. "They said their driveway and yard have already been raised once," Quilici said.

DSR Construction was brought on to do just that, replacing two of the existing driveway approaches along with necessary improvements to the private driveways to match the higher elevations. "This will allow less water to drain on to these properties during the high intensity storm events," Quilici added.

The contractor will also install additional drain inlets at the bottom of the overpass and piping to provide an overland release of storm water to the east of the overpass. Quilici pointed out that the water, in turn, would be diverted to the RC property.

"That area would need to be re-graded at the bottom of the slope of the overpass so it will pond into a trench or type of basin on the Ripon Christian property," she said.

In order to do that the City will be required to enter into an agreement with RC — this part is scheduled to be on Tuesday's Ripon City Council meeting agenda.

Cost for DSR Construction to handle the project is $50,371 via the Streets & Road Capital Fund.