We try to avoid cross-posting on the CEES and FEH websites. CEES involvement in the Indiana Fluvial Erosion Hazard (FEH) Mitigation Program is most often discussed on the FEH website – but sometimes FEH projects are at the intersection of science, policy, and art, and then we want to share them with a broader audience.
The CEES website is the place to do that. The pictures show a section of Bean Creek in Garfield Park where the stream is both eroding laterally and down-cutting. Early attempts to slow the lateral bank erosion along the right bank appear to have focused flow along a 48-inch sewer line buried in the channel. Accelerated erosion along the pipe left it completely exposed in the channel, and at risk for failure. The second picture shows the site after the sewer pipe has been protected. This emergency stabilization was necessary, but will potentially accelerate left bank erosion. Note that portions of the left bank have already been rocked in a “temporary” stabilization measure. One of the goals in the current phase of the FEH program is to assess how to best protect infrastructure and the stream, when problems like this occur. This site has multiple challenges, in addition to the sewer pipe there are bridges upstream and downstream, trails, roads, and parking lots… all tucked into a historically significant park landscape. Should be interesting!
Update 6/13/2014 – Citizens has stabilized the pipe and removed the rock from the channel. Planning is underway to develop a long-term solution.
