The Venice Island Water Project, talked about for at least a decade and started at the end of the summer, seems close to completing its first phase. Between the Manayunk Canal and the Schuylkill River, between the Lock and Cotton Street bridges sits a strip of land that was, until very recently, home to basketball/hockey courts, a playground, a rec center, an abandoned pool, and a parking lot.

A year ago

The Venice Island Underground Water Storage Basin project will replace those old sites with state-of-the-art recreational facilities, a new performing arts center, 400-foot long underground water storage basin, a pumping house, and a new parking lot with entrances at both bridges. During the past few years there have been dozens of community meetings during which feedback from locals was collected, to make sure everyone was “on board.”

Rendering of the completed project

“It will definitely be a positive for the district,” said Jane Lipton, executive director of the Manayunk Development Corporation. “It will add value. It will add to the quality of life.” She said she thinks the project will definitely increase the number of residents who use the facilities.

The three-phased Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) project began this September. Phase A, slated to be completed next month, has seen the demolition of the existing recreation facilities and the construction of a temporary parking lot at Cotton Street on the west side of the site. Phase B, scheduled to start in January, will result in the demolition of the old parking facilities and excavation for the underground storage tank followed by construction of the tank, pumping facility and roughly half of the new parking facility. Phase B’s completion is probably over a year away, according to Lipton. Construction of new athletic fields, a kids’ spray pool, tons of green space, the arts center and more are part of Phase C, which will take at least another year, Lipton said.

According to FlyingKiteMedia, the reason for this massive, $45M project is a Federal requirement for the PWD to remand the current situation where sewage is dumped into the river when heavy rains occur. The construction of the 400-foot-long underground storage basin should improve the water quality in the Schuylkill River, and therefore, the water supply for the city.

This project is clearly wonderful news for Manayunk residents and will improve everyone’s quality of life once it’s complete. The one thing giving us pause about this project- isn’t this the same island that was underwater a little more than a year ago?

–Lou Mancinelli