City officials in D.C. have broken ground on a tunnel intended to prevent flooding by storing stormwater during intense rainstorms.
Mayor Vincent Gray and other officials broke ground Friday on the First Street Tunnel which will hold millions of gallons of wastewater and stormwater during heavy rain.
The project is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2016. It is intended to mitigate flooding in the Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park neighborhoods.
"It happens on a regular basis. Every time it rains, we have to make sure the water isn't filling the basement," resident Natalie Hopkinson said.
Officials say both neighborhoods have experienced flooding during heavy rains for more than a century, and four major floods two years ago jumpstarted the tunnel project.
