Tuskegee's Water System Under Construction | News

TUSKEGEE, AL (WSFA)- When it rains it pours in Tuskegee.

"It would start here, all of this would be underwater, everything you see would be underwater, all the way to over the highway," Tuskegee Mayor Omar Neal said.

Neal says for the last 15 years, deplorable sewer systems would cause flooding and the shutdown of major roadways in downtown like Martin Luther King Highway.

"[It's] inexcusable and unacceptable," Neal said.

The mayor says a collapsed water system in a nearby building created this flood zone near Fonville and Lee streets.

It has been a safety issue and a headache for drivers. 

You had to block the road off cause cars can't even pass and it's like the main road in Tuskegee; water was two, three feet deep," Tuskegee resident Eric Moore said.

Water rising so high, it flows into this Kentucky Fried Chicken/Taco Bell. Manager Latisha Tarver says workers would have to be sent home and the restaurant shuts down.

"All of this floods, the whole parking lot, the drive thru, we have to shutdown drive thru and only use the right side of the building," Tarver said.  

Now the water line that flows to most of the downtown businesses is under construction.

"[It's a] $2.3 million dollar project that will completely remedy that problem," Neal said.

Mayor Neal's office is right across from the flood zone construction site. He says it will be a completely new water and sewer system with new pipes.

"For me to look out the window and see this kind of progress is tremendous," Neal said.

"The customers will be happy, we will be happy," Tarver said.

The mayor says weather permitting, it should take about 90 days to complete.

Copyright 2012  WSFA 12 News.  All rights reserved.