Too much water.

That was quite a rain storm. 

The service department was out this morning working on this big, six foot storm drain, but the water brought more debris.  They showed back up a couple of minutes after I took this photo.

This is what the grate looked like after it was cleaned out after the last big storm.

I went back to check on the other two creeks.

The creek by the land bridge is the one I’ve been working on.  The headwall was put in last year.  For the last couple of weeks, my project has been to raise the creek bed and add rocks to mitigate more erosion.  A big rain could have washed away my work if it came too soon. 

Here’s what it looked like yesterday.  Dots were added to the photo to aid in explanation.  The blue dots indicate anchor rocks.  Those are thousand pounders that keep everything from being swept away.  After those were in, I added a couple of yards are dirt to raise the creek bed.

The orange dots indicate sergeant rocks.  Those are hundred pounders that are supposed to do all the work.  They break up the flow, slow the water, and divert it.  That rock right in front of the culvert pipe is supposed to take it in the face, to break up the current. 

A bunch of ten pounders are thrown around to back up the sergeants.

Today, when I went to check it out, the creek was at about 90% of maximum.  Water had gone over the top of the land bridge, but wasn’t doing that when I was there.

There is more to do, but it seems to be working.  I will be curious what it looks like tomorrow, when the water is gone.

Here is the upstream side of the land bridge.  Both culvert pipes are marked with an orange dot and are almost underwater, that’s why I’m calling this 90% maximum.  With enough water, both pipes can be submerged and the water goes over the top.  That’s why building a headwall for this side will be a summer project.  

The South creek used to be a 15 foot deep gully when First Energy came in to fix it.  They dumped tons and tons of rocks.  Yesterday, there was a little bit of water flowing between the rocks. 

Today, there is water all over the place.  Those orange dots designate a path above all the rocks.  That’s bad because erosion will continue there.