It took 38 years and $15.3 million, but Richmond finally has delivered on its promise to control flooding of Reedy Creek in South Side.

The last phase of the project, completed last week at a cost of $3.2 million, is designed to prevent the chronic flooding of German School Road at its intersection with Midlothian Turnpike.

"It has taken an inordinate amount of time to resolve this, but now it is done," declared Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, who called the project proof that Richmond's new, elected-mayor form of government is working.

It's been a long wait in part of South Richmond annexed from Chesterfield County in 1970 with the promise of better public services, including drainage improvements that have been slow to come.

"This has been a project that's been on a back burner for a long, long time," said 8th District Councilman Douglas G. Conner Jr., a political ally of the mayor who has received the city's support for finishing work to widen the creek and improve the drainage channel.

Richmond has been working to control Reedy Creek for decades, beginning with drainage improvements from the James River through Forest Hill Park. The last link has been the channel on both sides of German School Road, which handles 6,000 cars a day and floods during nearly every heavy rain.

No more, city officials said today at a ceremony to mark the end of the drainage project. They are also looking forward to the planned widening of the road to four lanes, with a median, curbs and sidewalks -- the kinds of improvements promised at annexation.

-- Michael Martz