Street drainage issue

Hello all,

New to the forum. I live in a townhouse HOA community in which the streets and street maintenance are the responsibility of the HOA. I moved in October of 2010 and noticed a significant "pooling" of water at the bottom of my driveway at the curb. I discussed the matter with my HOA board member neighbor in early May of this year, and he agreed it was "aweful" and he told me that the HOA had budgeted a repair to the problem which was to take place in a few weeks. Over the last week, asphalt work was done along an entire stretch of my street, followed by a complete tar sealing.

The water table is extremely high in this area and I noticed the contracted street repair crew was having a heck of a time clearing the standing water in the front of my driveway. Seems water is slowly coming up at this low spot and despite their valiant efforts to squeegee and blow torch the area, water continued to rise complicating the sealing operation.

About 12 hours after "completion" of the project, traffic was allowed through the area. Unfortunately, the "pool" at the base of my driveway is actually much larger than before and the resurfaced and sealed area is submerged in water which is not allowing the tar to cure. I was told by one of the street crew guys to leave the street "cone" they had placed at the bottom of the driveway in place until the area had dried. Well, doesn't appear that's going to happen. My HOA board member neighbor removed the cone late yesterday and as luck would have it, someone made a U turn using my driveway which tracked wet tar all over my concrete driveway. That's another issue.

I chatted again with the HOA member after it was clear that the water drainage issue wasn't going away and was actually worse. I was then told, "there's nothing that can be done since this was a low area and water can't travel up hill. I agreed with his analysis however I told him "something has to be done" since this will become a mosquito haven as well as a health issue with standing stagnant water, non curing tar, coupled with the fact it looks terrible.

Any advise on how to further approach this mess would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,
Jim S
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[IMG]http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq54/dylans1999/townhousecurbjune42012.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks. I'm sure the HOA did the leg work concerning local codes but I'll double check with them. My biggest concern is my rights as a dues paying HOA member to get this darn mess fixed. Thanks again.

Yes, and thanks for the response. This area is notorious for an extremely high water table. There are several spots "here and there" that cover a hundred yards that seep water. That's one area of concern. I could deal with that if I did not have a serious (and highly visible) low spot directly at the bottom of my driveway. This will catch and create an 8 foot by 8 foot by 3 inch "pool" regardless of ground seepage, rain, sprinkler runoff or any other water source.
Thanks all!

With the high water table situation previously discussed, a drain would allow the ground water to go up......not down as drains are normally intended.

Hi guys,

We were just quoted $28,000 (low bid) for all of the grading, existing concrete removal, adding 120 feet of new concrete gutters, asphalt "crowning" etc to remedy this drainage issue. Needless to say, this far exceeds our HOA budget....BOY, does it exceed it!

Question. This street was built in 2002 and although the cost was incurred by the developers, my understanding is that the city had to sign off (inspection) on all of the various portions of the construction. Should the city share any liability on the costs associated with having this done correctly?

Many thanks.

Jim

You say:

I live in a townhouse HOA community in which the streets and street maintenance are the responsibility of the HOA.

If as in private roads, the HOA is responsible.

Jim,

You have indicated that the community is around ten years old, owns its own streets, but that the $28,000 repair estimate is way more than the budget allows.

Does your association have any reserve funds to cover street repairs? In all honesty, $28,000 to repair a street does not sound like that money and your association should have been setting aside reserve funds for street and other expected repairs, plus unforeseen emergency repairs.