Monroe Avenue water war 

The Town of Brighton is taking on a project to make a section of Monroe Avenue more attractive and more pedestrian friendly. But the project's main aim is to control storm water runoff along the heavily traveled road.

The streetscape between Twelve Corners and Allens Creek near Westfall Road will be remade into a "green street." The corridor has many paved surfaces, including parking areas and sidewalks. When it rains, the water flows from those surfaces and into the road or into Allens and Buckland creeks.

The roadside features that will be planted or installed through the green street project should absorb or hold back some of the water, says Brighton Supervisor Bill Moehle. The features could include trees, rain gardens, and porous sidewalk pavement. And some of those same features will serve as buffers between pedestrians and vehicles, Moehle says.

"A lot of the things that help storm water help the appearance," he says.

The project, which received a $1.6 million grant from the state Environmental Facilities Corporation, is still in planning stages. Construction should start next year, Moehle says. If the project is successful, the same approach could be used along other streets or in other communities to address storm water issues, he says.

The green street project won't directly address storm-related flooding at the Monroe-Clover intersection, Moehle says. But a state Department of Transportation project to rebuild Monroe between Clover and I-590 may provide some relief for that problem. The project is meant to address safety issues along that stretch of road, but DOT officials say that the plans also include upgraded storm drains.