Repairs on Private Property
This property is the
poster child for the stream buffer abuses the city has and why the law
needs to be changed. The fence and
the shed are both on
the stream bank. The foundation for this shed =IS=
the stream bank! There is a swimming pool built within the 25ft stream
buffer that was law when it was built as well as some of the
additions to the house. I don't have the legal documents but I was told
there is an easement on this land for this storm water drain and that
not
too long ago the stream ran open through the side yard.
This is the start of
the mistakes made on the repair project. The city should NEVER have
re-piped the stream on this private property and should have returned
it
to its natural state. Now because the stream is inside a pipe, all
the storm water on this property can't get to the stream bank and is
funneled into a small area right next to this shed. This is going to
cause erosion next to the outlet of the pipe and erosion problems in
his yard. An open stream would have
allowed this
water to drain directly into the stream like nature intended. Here is a
shot of this area during the construction. All the water from the
surrounding property will now flow between the left edge of this new
concrete wall and this shed; far from ideal.
Now some interesting
things start happening. There is a budget for this project and they
decide to
use up the expensive concrete pipe at the downstream end of the project
on
this
private property.
Two problems with this part of the plan: Why use the
expensive pipe on
private property that would be the easiest to replace later if needed?
And second, since this is the highest "flow speed" type of pipe, why
install it here so water is accelerated right before it leaves the
system? This part of the project
was covered up
before I could photograph it so I have to assume that it was installed
correctly (leap of faith). They also used this 60 inch concrete pipe
under the road
to replace the 42 inch pipe that was originally there. When they
started digging up the road, they dug into the water
main and broke it in half causing the county repair crew to have to
come out and reroute the pipes.
The next problem is the quality of the
brick work used on the road side storm water basins. They build these
so the water from the road can flow into the pipe. If they leak, water
doesn't flow through the pipe but flows on the outside of the pipe
eroding
the support dirt under the pipe causing it to crack/collapse which
is what creates sink holes and road failures. As you can easily see,
there are large gaps and very little mortar used to build these. This
is some of the worst brick work I think I've ever seen on any type of
project, note the lower of these two that the pipe is connected to.
This is a small sample
of the type of construction techniques used on this project and this
part was some of their best work! Next is where the real problems are,
if they had used the above techniques we might be OK.