Discussion of the Port Royal Gully Improvement Project
On January 15, 2026 at 6pm, RSVA will host a meeting with SCEE to discuss the Gully improvement project:
- January 15, 2026 at 6pm
- Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education
This is a message from SCEE about the project:
We are thrilled to announce that in February 2026 we will start work on a project to reduce erosion and flooding on Port Royal Avenue. As you may know, increased flooding on Port Royal has led to pooling water and dangerous driving conditions. This project focuses on a two-acre site on the Schuylkill Center landscape uphill from Smith Run, a first-order spring-fed stream that runs through our property. The project site is adjacent to Port Royal Avenue, where a low point in the road allows water to collect and where the stormwater runoff has carved a gully into the adjacent hillside, carrying soil and debris into Wind Dance pond and Smith Run.
Fortunately, we have successfully completed the engineering and design process to create a solution that will reduce flooding on Port Royal Avenue and redirect stormwater safely through our wild landscape. This will benefit drivers and residents but also it will help nature thrive.
During construction, you may notice when larger equipment and supplies are delivered to the site which may cause temporary disruptions to traffic. We anticipate these disruptions to be minimal and short-term. Construction will begin in February and likely will be completed in June. We will continue to improve the landscape on our property with invasive plant removal and planting trees into the autumn.
Both during construction and after it is complete, we will invite the community to participate in volunteer opportunities including cleanups along the road, restoration workdays, and tree-plantings. This first of these cleanup days is on March 28. You can sign up on our website here: https://schuylkillcenter.org/event/communitycleanup2026/
More volunteer opportunities will be announced in 2026.
This project is a true cross-sector collaboration between private companies and funders, nonprofits, governmental agencies, and community volunteers. Fundraising for this $750,000 phase of the project took years from concept through design and finally the achieving the funding through multiple sources of private funders and grants, including the Philadelphia Water Department, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and PIDC as well as private donors.
If you have any questions about this project, please feel free to contact me. Thank you so much for your understanding as we work to improve our landscape and protect the neighborhood from flooding. We hope that you will get involved with us through volunteering or, if you haven’t already, by becoming a member of the Schuylkill Center.