It happened again after Friday’s rain: Flood waters rose around Broadway and Central, threatening people’s basements and forcing them to slop through pools of water to get to and from their cars.

But Peter Avakian, an engineer for Neptune Township, said Saturday that by this winter the drainage problems that have plagued that area of Ocean Grove for years should be solved.

As the Home Owners Association’s guest speaker on Saturday, Avakian gave a rundown on the project to speed the flow of storm water out of the streets and into Fletcher Lake.

Pretty much all of the water in the southern part of Ocean Grove drains into the lake through a box culvert on Broadway, he said. But after a heavy rain that culvert is too small to handle the flow, and so the water rises and stands along Broadway.

But toward the end of October, Avakian said, new, larger concrete pipes will start going into the ground, and by middle to late December all of the drainage improvement work should be done. Then, in the spring, the entire length of Broadway is to be repaved.

Included in the project is replacement of about 120 feet of Fletcher Lake’s bulkhead, which failed about 20 years ago. Also, a new storm drain treatment device will be installed to screen out silt and other materials before the water goes into the ocean.

Avakian said the entire project will cost $937,000, of which $517,000 comes from state aid.

— Charles Layton