The rain won’t go away but the flooding finally will at the bottom of the James Street hill.

Crews will start work in mid-March on a $2.3 million project to build a new James Street stormwater pump station to help stop the seasonal flooding that closes a primary commute route between downtown Kent and the East Hill.

The City Council approved a low bid on Feb. 16 from Auburn-based Rodarte Construction, Inc., to replace the current pump station just north of James Street near Woodford Avenue North. The station will help divert stormwater to the Green River.

“I am very pleased to be making this motion,” said Councilwoman Dana Ralph prior to the 5-0 vote. “Since I have been on council (in 2012), I have served on the Public Works Committee and we have been talking about this for that long. Growing up on East Hill, I have lots of memories of flooding of various kinds. There are a lot of things that are out of our control – like dredging the creek – and there are reasons for that. We do have control over this.

“I am very pleased to be moving this forward and very hopeful it will bring relief to all of those who travel up and down James Street.”

Heavy rain closed the street once in November and again in December last year. The current pump station can no longer handle the amount water flow along the street.

“Completing this pump station will greatly reduce the type of flooding we have seen here in the recent months,”    said Tim LaPorte, city public works director, at the council meeting.

Money from the city’s stormwater drainage utility fund will pay for the project. Single-family residents pay a storm drainage fee of $12.22 per month. Multifamily and commercial properties pay higher rates based on impervious surfaces, concrete driveways, parking lots and other factors.

Crews will install a 120-inch diameter stormwater pump station, a diesel standby generator and an electrical communication system. Earlier phases of the project included construction of piping along Central Avenue to carry the water to the Horseshoe Acres pump station to the Green River in south Kent.

LaPorte said that Mill Creek has a lot of problems with sediment that will require dredging near Kennebeck Avenue. But that’s a separate project that will require an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). City staff has met with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state Department of Ecology and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe to discuss the issue.

“The Mill Creek basin drains most of the Kent Valley and a small portion of the East Hill,” LaPorte said.

Crews will have to close James Street for several days at some point this summer to install catch basins and piping. To speed up construction, the city will allow the contractor to close the street for up to nine consecutive days, said city project engineer Garrett Inouye in an email.

“James Street can only be closed during the Kent School District’s summer break and cannot be closed during the district’s graduation weekend in June,” Inouye said. “The contractor shall request closure at least three weeks in advance. Once the closure period is known, advance warning will be made through portable message boards along the main roadways leading into James Street seven calendar days prior to the road closure.”

The entire project is expected to be completed by mid-October.

City crews also will install a new asphalt overlay on James Street this summer between Central Avenue and 94th Avenue South.

Crews will repave all lanes at a cost of $1.7 million, covered by the city’s business and occupation tax. Prior to the paving, crews still need to put in shrubbery to complete the new sidewalk project.