A severe thunderstorm swept through Innisfil on Tuesday afternoon, with dangerous lightning strikes and heavy rainfall leading to localized flooding.
In fact, so much rain fell that several homes on Park Road, along the northern edge of Innisfil Beach Park, experienced the kind of flooding normally seen only during the spring snow melt.
The town has announced plans for drainage improvements in the area, including the construction of a new drainage channel inside the park, parallel to Park Road, to divert the runoff now entering the road’s drainage ditches from an estimated 34 hectares of developed land west of 25 Sideroad.
Unfortunately for residents, construction of the project has now been deferred to the summer of 2021.
“We engaged the conservation authority in our design process and, through them, they are requesting additional environmental studies with respect to the proposed drainage channel going through Innisfil Beach Park," said Amber Leal, the town's capital projects manager.
“We are looking into developing a wetland-type feature to help with storage of some of the stormwater," she added.
The shallow, 7.3-metre wide drainage channel would run from the west end of the park, near 25 Sideroad and Park Road, eastward toward Lake Simcoe, connecting with an existing creek – the same creek currently fed by the Park Road drainage ditches.
A pedestrian crossing of the channel would be constructed near the Alderslea entrance to the park.
Park Road residents attended a public meeting in January to learn more about the plans and were told by Ken Chow, project manager with KSGS Engineering, “it’s a solution that’s not going to resolve everything, but it’s going to be better than it was.”
Initially, consultants were hopeful that the work could begin this summer. With the delay in receiving a permit from the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, work won’t start until next year, which means residents will have to stay alert for severe weather events and one more spring melt.
