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DES MOINES, Iowa — Driving through Beaverdale there are many construction projects blocking roads.

After severe storms caused flooding in the Beaverdale neighborhood in 2018, the city sped up plans to build new stormwater infrastructure.

“We’ve been working closest creek since the early 2000s,” Patrick Beane, the Clean Water Program Administrator for Des Moines Public Works, said. “The June 2018 event really allowed the political will to find the funding to move these projects forward.”

Beane said that although the projects may disrupt traffic they are necessary to prevent future flooding in the area.

“We can go and patch stuff and do little stuff but if we want to go and solve the problem yeah we need to rip that band-aid off and do these longer projects to really solve the problems for the long-term,” Beane said.

Jenni Klise is a Beaverdale resident that had her home damaged in the 2018 flood. After the flood, she joined the Stormwater Infrastructure Advisory Committee to make sure that no one else had to experience what she did.

Klise said the city has put in the work to replace the stormwater infrastructure since the flood.

“The city has listened and they’ve done amazing things,” Klise said, “Construction is painful, my street was torn up for a good 18 months and it’s kind of like a bow and arrow sometimes you have to be pulled backwards to go forwards.”

The city has many other stormwater infrastructure projects planned not just for the Beaverdale neighborhood but all over Des Moines.