COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Residents of Dominion Boulevard in Clintonville say construction crews have been on their street for a couple of years.

“I think everybody has been a little curious about when it’s going to be over – now they’re starting to get a little ticked off about it,” said longtime resident Bill Finkes.

Most of the work is related to the installation of a series of curbside rain gardens – designed to collect, filter and drain stormwater.

Leslie Westervelt, a City of Columbus spokesperson for the project, said rain gardens are intended to improve water quality.

“The rain gardens are not designed to completely eliminate street flooding,” Westervelt said. “The rain gardens were really put there because we’re trying to solve the problem of sewer overflows.”

The rain gardens are part of the city’s plan under a consent decree with the Ohio EPA to address sewer overflows. Hundreds of rain gardens will be installed in neighborhoods around the city.

The plan also includes sump pump installations, downspout redirections and lining the lateral sewer lines from homes out to the street.

The city is using a variety of rain garden designs. Westervelt says testing shows that the rain gardens installed are working but there’s not enough data yet to show how well.

Dominion Boulevard resident Elizabeth Patnoe said residents there are generally in favor of the rain garden concept but are unhappy with the concrete vault design used on their street and the elimination of more than 20 parking spaces.

“Every single person on this street is mortified by what they’re doing,” Patnoe said. “People walk this street, ride their bikes, there are no sidewalks, no streetlights….I’m very concerned that someone’s going to get hurt from one of these.”

The city said work on the Clintonville rain gardens will wrap up this summer.

The next neighborhood scheduled to get rain gardens is North Linden.