Phase 2 of the Tanyard Brook rehabilitation project has been going on for about a month now. It began on the south side of Garfield Street and is heading north, moving from lower elevation to higher. Currently crews are between Garfield and Collins streets.

Phase 1 led from the harbor to Garfield Street; phase 3 will run from Richmond Street to the State Street Reservoir.

“I don’t want to jinx us, but we’ve been able to continue working despite the rain,” said Department of Public Works Director Kevin McBride.

Though there haven’t been holdups, work might seem slow to the casual observer, but that’s just due to the complexity of the project. Major gas and water utilities needed to be relocated.

“If the weather holds, we hope to have the culvert in by mid-December,” said Mr. McBride. “Then we’ll lay off work until mid-spring.” At that point, much of the work to be done will be cosmetic and surface repairs, and residents will already be enjoying the flood-control benefits of the large underground culvert.

Tanyard Brook has been a source of neighborhood flooding for nearly two decades. When the 4,500-foot culvert was originally designed and constructed before the 1960s, Tanyard Brook was intended to handle runoff from a 10-year storm event. Since then, the town has grown, and buildings and concrete surfaces have replaced wetlands that helped minimize runoff. The clogged and collapsed culvert was susceptible to flooding during heavy rain events. The $3.5 million Phase 1 of the project corrected the outflow into Walker’s Cove with a tide gate to allow for the release of storm water when necessary. Phases 2 and 3 will increase the capacity of water it can handle.

The multi-million-dollar project will be funded in part through a $17 million bond approved by voters last November. Seven million dollars of the bond was set aside for drainage projects in town, though town council members sought federal and state grants to help further defray the project’s cost. They were also able to get finding from a HUD community development block grant for disaster recovery, funneled through the state.

“It’s been a long time coming, years in the making,” said Diane Williamson, Bristol’s community development director. “It’s an issue that predates my hiring in 1995, maybe back to the 1970s. It’s just one of those projects that’s always been on the list.”

The project required sign-offs by the many homeowners along the congested corridor; negotiating easements was Ms. Williamson’s responsibility, a job that took about a year to complete. “Every one was different,” Ms. Williamson said. “This project touches a lot of properties, with special trees, arbors, hedges and structures. Each one was unique, with its own circumstances.”

For homeowners along the Brook, the temporary inconvenience will be well worth the long-term peace of mind, not having to go to bed at night with rain in the forecast, not knowing how many inches of water will be flooding their basement in the morning.