LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Yolanda Walker is fed up with a problem that's been the talk of her neighborhood for years.
"If it was anywhere else, then yes, something would be done," said Walker, the president of the California Neighborhood Leadership Council.
She's asking Metro Louisville to make a neighborhood viaduct on West Oak Street between 13th and 15th Streets much safer.
"The water floods," she said. "I don't know where it come from, but it's like you're in a little river."
She said the viaduct itself is dark and existing lights underneath barely give off a "candlelight" amount of brightness.
"It gets dark on you, like going into a dark tunnel," Walker said. "It gets dark, and your eyes have to adjust to see like you walk into a dark room, and by that time, it's too late."
She said as bad as it is during the day, it's even worse once the sun sets.
"You can't even see your hand in front of your face," she said.
Back on the night of Sept. 8, a cab driver died in floodwater in the viaduct. Afterward, city departments vowed they'd make changes.
"I haven't noticed any improvements since the tragedy," Walker said. "It has been the same."
Actually, the city said it made a number of improvements just last month by placing signs at the West Oak Street viaduct and elsewhere.
"The reflective signs are black letters against a white background with the street address on a top plate above the viaduct number on a separate plate immediately below," Metro Public Works wrote in a recent update. "The signs were placed at viaducts in 22 locations that are known to be flood prone. Those location signs installed in January are the second phase of a flood signage improvement program begun last fall. In October 2018 new viaduct approach signs went up at 24 locations."
Those new approach signs now warn drivers on West Oak and elsewhere that the "Road May Flood."
"OK, the 'road may flood,' but where is my caution and my warning that the road has flooded?" Walker said.
Walker would like to see more in a viaduct that's already proven deadly.
"Who does it have to affect?" she asked. "Because that gentleman was just as important as anyone else."
In a September news conference, after the tragedy involving the cab driver, the city said it would also consider installing a warning light system that would trigger a flashing light when water levels were high.
Public Works and MSD are still "examining the feasibility" of those flashing signals, Metro Public Works wrote.
Right now, the viaduct is closed to traffic due to unrelated work on the railroad on top.
Copyright 2019 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
