Downtown Evansville drivers for weeks have been diverted by a series of road closures stemming from the same project.
Its full name is a mouthful: Toyota Trinity Stormwater Park Combined Sewer System Separation Project. It’s one piece of Evansville’s consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, requiring the city to end, or in some cases greatly reduce, combined stormwater and sanitary sewer overflows.
The Trinity project involves installing 4,500 linear feet of storm sewer lines, 29 storm sewer manholes and inlets, and a 1-million-gallon subsurface detention basin at the site of the former Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
The church at Northwest Third and Vine streets was razed a few years ago.
The construction area is massive, and sporadic road closures are likely through at least September 2023, says Matt Montgomery, capital projects manager with the Evansville Water & Sewer Utility. Closures are updated weekly on the project’s website.
The good news is, the final product is viewed as an attractive Downtown addition, with walking paths, a pergola, trees, and shrubs surrounding the detention basin. The park will incorporate granite and stained glass from the demolished
Trinity church.
Montgomery says EWSU only is involved in constructing the stormwater infrastructure, not the park features. Private fundraising will dictate how soon those are built. The park concept is spear-headed by the University of Evansville’s Changemaker Challenge through Robert Lopez, a senior student who started work- ing with EWSU on the project when he attended Benjamin Bosse High School. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana is a $350,000 donor.