News

By Steve Plunkett

Town officials are considering some quick short-term fixes to prevent ruts from forming along and water from ponding on roadways in the core area.
Gulf Stream is in its second year of a 10-year capital improvement plan to replace water mains and rebuild streets. This year’s work focuses on the water main along the northern section of State Road A1A.
But Town Manager Greg Dunham alerted town commissioners at their Jan. 10 meeting that Gulf Stream’s engineering consultant is developing a plan to tackle minor drainage and pavement edge repairs this year.
“You all know about the areas where ponding and rutting alongside the road have been occurring,” Dunham said.
The problem areas are on Polo and Lakeview drives and Gulfstream, Old School and Banyan roads.
Mayor Scott Morgan embraced the idea.
“It seems wise to try to address the issue of very narrow roads, particularly Gulfstream, and water pooling at Polo if it can be done relatively inexpensively and relatively quickly,” the mayor said. “We feel that expanding Gulfstream Road, particularly on the east side going all the way up, putting a curb down on Lakeview and addressing this Polo piling of water because of the elevated drainage area will make a significant difference to the town quickly and pretty inexpensively.”
Dunham said possible solutions are adding curbs at corners and expanding pavement a foot or so “to prevent rutting from parked vehicles or cars running off the edge of the pavement.”
Other fixes could include putting a stone or rock shoulder along a street’s edge, cutting a swale and resodding it to direct runoff away from the road, removing grass in front of drainage inlets and inlet aprons, and adjusting drainage inlet tops and gates or saw-cutting and raising the road where settlement has occurred.
“One of the best examples of that is the big inlet down at Old School and Polo that always has water ponding around it that can’t get into it,” Dunham said. “So one way to address that is to take the lid off, actually cut the box and lower it so the water can get into it.”
Commissioner Paul Lyons, who lives on Polo, said he was “very much in favor” of the proposal, which engineering consultant Baxter & Woodman will flesh out for the commission’s Feb. 14 meeting.
Planning for the reconstruction of Polo, Gulfstream and other core roads is scheduled for fiscal 2021 in the capital improvement plan with reconstruction work done in fiscal 2022.
Commissioners also discussed a white SUV that is parked almost year-round on a town right of way along Polo Drive. Rather than draw up an ordinance to regulate overnight parking, they directed Dunham to contact the property owner to try to resolve the issue.