I want to:

• Watch the recording of the first public meeting from February 18, 2021 
• Watch the recording of the second public meeting from May 20, 2021

Project Overview 

The Madison District Green Infrastructure project is intended to improve neighborhood streets, fix drainage problems, and protect Puget Sound from polluted runoff by installing permeable pavement. Permeable pavement allows rainwater falling on streets to soak into the ground and eventually, to the groundwater.

The Environmental Services Department received a grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology and has partnered with the Public Works Department and Tacoma Water to replace the streets and utilities in the Madison District, shown in blue on the map below. 

With support from these partnerships, the project is planning to replace and/or install the following:                       

• Permeable pavement (also known as pervious asphalt)
• Non-permeable pavement (also known as standard asphalt) 
• Continuous sidewalks 
• Walking and biking path 
• Additional street trees picked by property owners 
• Street drainage 
• Sewer pipes 
• Drinking water pipes  

The typical roadway and sidewalk once completed will look similar to the graphic below. Streets may look slightly different then what is shown. 

Walking and Biking Path 

A new 10-foot wide walking and biking path is part of a larger plan to increase walkability by eventually building a looped path called the Loop Road. The planned Loop Road is shown in the below map. The Loop Road is planned to be installed on South 45th from Pine to Lawrence Street.

Why permeable pavement? 

Replacing 16 residential streets (in need of improvement) with pervious pavement will improve the driving surface and help with water quality by infiltrating rainwater from the road surface. Currently, rainwater that is collected on the road surface in this neighborhood flows into catch basins, is piped to Flett Creek, Chambers Creek, and ultimately to Puget Sound. When this untreated rainwater (also known as stormwater) is piped to these bodies of water, it carries harmful pollutants from cars and human activities and discharges these pollutants into our water. This has a negative effect on plants, animals, humans, and entire ecosystem.

The permeable pavement installed as part of this project will infiltrate 28 acres of stormwater, rather than collecting it in a piped system. This infiltration process will allow pollutants to be filtered out by the soils, and allow clean stormwater to combine with the groundwater, which will help recharge the South Tacoma Aquifer. The South Tacoma Aquifer is used by the city as a supplemental source of drinking water. 

View the Madison District Project Schematic Plan

View the Project Block-by-Block Plan

Funding

Project Schedule

Questions? Contact:

Seth Gottlieb, Project Manager
(253) 370-1983
sgottlieb@cityoftacoma.org