Ditch Maintenance 101
After roads, the second most important issue I hear about from voters is flooding. While we are working closely to pursue larger drainage projects to address flooding, one of the most basic tools we have to help the water drain faster is ditch maintenance. One of my goals is to ensure we have regular ditch maintenance across James Island to proactively address current and future flooding.
To help understand who does and is responsible for what, I’ve put together the following guidelines in consultation with staff:
Similar to sidewalks, roadside ditch maintenance is most closely associated with road ownership. (However, canals (i.e. ‘big’ systems) and ditches (smaller systems) on the side or rear yards are maintained based on property jurisdiction. That means that the South Carolina Department of Transportation (DOT) is responsible for maintenance of the ditches on Folly Road, Riverland, Grimball Ext, Secessionville, Old Military Road and more. DOT’s goal is to inspect ditches every six to eight years to see if maintenance is needed, and for the most part, deals with maintenance on a reactive basis. If we are going to change this, DOT needs more funding and resources. So what do we do in the meantime? As you know from past newsletters, the City staff has graciously stepped-up to help fill the maintenance gap on many of these roads, including on Folly Rd, Grimball Ext and Old Military Rd.
For drainage infrastructure owned and maintained by the City (which can be identified in this helpful map), the City generally follows this schedule:
Property adjacent ditches: Hand clean ditches next to or beside property (aka non-roadside ditches) once per year. This means that the City will use weeders and chain saws to pull out debris and vegetation. Flood prone areas are generally addressed twice per year.
Roadside ditches: Over the past six years, the City has used “machine cleaning” to fully rehabilitate City maintained ditches. Now, we are shifting to annual inspection and touch up work. This means that the City will do spot checks on an annual basis and then do localized maintenance if needed.
Canal (Larger systems): The City has rehabilitated most major canals over the last three years, and cleans those of vegetation on an annual basis, and sediment (dirt) when needed.
Pipes: The City cleans stormwater pipes on James Island on a primarily reactive basis when areas are not draining properly, or, we see flooding where it shouldn’t be.
The County maintains far fewer ditches in District 12. The best way to determine which ditches the County maintains would be the Street Maintenance Map. Similar to sidewalks, ownership of ditches typically corresponds with road ownership. If a ditch is County-owned, they do canal maintenance typically once a year, and then when there is an issue, they will go out and clear the pipes. My understanding is that the Town also follows this schedule.
The City crews have done an exemplary job of catching-up on decades of deferred ditch maintenance. Again, I believe this work would be much easier if one jurisdiction had control over the roads and therefore the corresponding flood infrastructure and the associated maintenance. So what do we do? Ask our State House Reps to allow municipalities to take control of our roads AND allocate the corresponding funding. And, if you see water not draining, please take a picture and send it to us! skardonl@charleston-sc.gov.