‘The sooner it’s up, the better:’ City leaders say Lasalle Street pump station is on schedule

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Business owners in San Marco managed to prevent stormwater from entering their buildings on Mon., Aug. 5. They also said the Lasalle Street pump station project would have been a big help with the stormwater if it was operational.

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San Marco is known to flood after a hurricane or tropical storm, just like it did on Monday with the heavy rains Debby brought.

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The $40 million pump station is supposed to help prevent flooding, but the pump wasn’t working in time for this season’s first storm. Still, city officials said this project is scheduled to eventually help this area.

Monday’s tropical storm caused flooding on Lasalle Street and San Marco Blvd. Some businesses boarded up their doors to their building and used sandbags to fight the flood.

“We have to tape the doors because when people drive through faster than they should it does create a wake it comes over the curb,” co-owner of the Rusted Shop, Chuck Head said.

Head said he’s been waiting for the city to complete the pump station on Lasalle Street, which was meant to combat flooding like we saw with Debby.

“The sooner it’s up and running the better. It will help all the businesses and the homes in the area,” Head said.

The city announced last year that the San Marco area would be getting a water pump station that’s expected to be nearly 200 yards from the St. Johns River.

Here on the city’s website, it lists the project’s projected timeline as 2023 to 2024.

So, Action News Jax asked the city for an update on this project. And they gave this statement that says in part:

“The project is on schedule. It will become operational in Q1 2025 as some nearby projects are happening in parallel that are required for the pump station to go online.”

The city’s statement goes on to say that this pump is meant to help reduce flooding but not eliminate it.

“If we would have gotten the 8 to 12 inches of rain like they were predicting then things could have been a lot worse,” Head said.

The total cost of the project is $40 million, and it’s funded in part by a $20 million grant from the state. The city is matching the other $20 million.

There are temporary pumps to reduce the flooding.

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