Dallas News Blog

How ironic this comes out on April Fools Day.

Heywood, that's some high fucking humor... nicely done.

RoB, remember the river crossing scene from Josey Wales? Well, I'm seein' a potential money makin' opportunity at Station 81+00.

Great. Thanks for posting geek-bait. That's the better part of an hour that I could have more productively used.

I wouldn't say that our bridges are crumbling, but the systems put in place that are supposed to protect the levees need maintenance. The standards have been raised, as admitted in the report, and for good reason in this post-Katrina world. I don't think this report keeps a toll-road out of the floodway, but it sure gets more expensive, IMHO. The negative effects of the tollroad can be mitigated. But that doesn't mean that it's still not a stupid idea.

I love page 44 with the picture of the materials underwater and the note that the contractor was warned about the predicted flooding. FAIL.

FWIW, I'm not a registered civil engineer, but I'm working on it.

Mmmm.... I don't remember Mayor Leppert telling us about this "minor" event (from page 43):

During the drilling of piers for Bent 6 (located 300’ from the wet side toe of the west levee), the contractor reported that large quantities of sand in the formation liquefied even though slurry was being used to hold the excavation open. The liquefaction was so extensive that it destabilized the area within a 20’ radius of the 7-foot diameter pier. This area had to be backfilled in order to be able to support the drill. When drilling resumed, a casing was used to support the excavation. However, the bottom of the pier heaved and blew out. The pier excavation was finally completed using both casing and slurry. During concrete placement, the contractor was unable to remove the casing with a 200-ton crane, so it remains a permanent fixture within the Floodway.

Now you see why Schutze needed a night to digest this bad boy. Every page has about two, three WTF moments -- be it a picture, a price tag or a description of something done that shouldn'ta been did. To the Friends who make it this far, please continue to post your finds, and I'll make sure we collect a best-of for Thursday's Unfair Park. Don't forget the appendices in the post just above this one.

From page 33: Footprint of the Dallas County Jail Facility with Respect to the East Levee.
This facility presents a significant risk to the levee’s integrity. The large rectangular building south of the bridge is the state jail facility, another unauthorized encroachment that may also impact the performance of the levee.

Uhhhh.... thanks for the help, County of Dallas and State of Texas ?!?!

Wylie, none of that in your last post need concern you as such. Again, how the meanders are made is important. So long as soil is removed away from the levees why would this to anything but alleviate the danger?

So long as the general grade isn't raised any excavation would only add to the carry capacity of the flood plain.

In fact, meandering river that is in a broad canal that is lower than the grade of the flood way would significantly add to that capacity and relegate the flood plain to 5 yr floods.

Note to anonymous: what part of the slope protection is responsible for supporting the traffic deck? Let's not fly off half-cocked trying to play gotcha.

To the Friends who make it this far, please continue to post your finds, and I'll make sure we collect a best-of for Thursday's Unfair Park. Don't forget the appendices in the post just above this one.
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Hey, wait a minute. You want Wylie H. to do your research for you? What happened to waiting for the DMN's painstaking research so you can nitpick one or two sentences that could be worded differently?

(snicker, snort)

Hot damn... this stuff is SO bad, it's AMAZING... just fuckin' amazing...

I can see the signs on the highways already "NOW ENTERING THE LOST CITY OF DALLAS"

This makes the DISD's 80 million dollar snafu look like a typo in a church newsletter!

...Patiently waiting for remarks from City Hall...

I bought a nice home years ago and the back-yard was really nice with a pool and pond and landscaping and out-buildings. But darn it, it turns out I have to maintain the thing - after already spending all that money to buy it!

Now, I've just finished reading the Dallas Floodway Periodic Inspection report and the ten appendices and the safety chart and letters...whew!

There are hundreds of "unacceptable and minimally acceptable items" in the report concerning everything from homeless folks borrowing rip-rap to construct shelter for themselves to giant gaping chasms under existing concrete structures to the existing levees already sliding into the friggin' Trinity!

Ya' gotta see the pictures (Page 2, Appendix G - one of seven significant slides). Areas of the levee 170 feet long and ten feet deep are just sliding into the Elm Fork of the Trinity River!

Although these slides are not "considered to present a high risk of failure of the Floodway at this time....Under normal conditions, the slides that have developed along the Floodway would be considered a recurring maintenance issue..."

Here's my take on the whole shebang...Dallas does not have the money or manpower to currently maintain the levees as required.

Hundreds of thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars have been spent trying to maintain the levee system (Appendix F for details) and yet, because the system is rapidly aging, the amount of time and money necessary to maintain the existing structures will only rise. The hell with trying to build something new...I want the City to take care of what we already have!

On 3/26 the DMN quoted TL from the Dallas City Council meeting of 3/25:

""We cannot lose sight of the fact we have major issues to deal with. There are transportation issues, air-quality issues. We can't put our head in the sand and pretend those are going to go away," he said. "

Well it looks like we are going to have to "put our head in the sand" and see how much sand is really down there!

Remember the song, "Goodbye to a River" by Don Henley? Someday I'd love to see Don sing it standing on top of a levee - but change the words to "Goodbye to a Tollway"...