{"id":1850,"date":"2015-08-12T00:21:20","date_gmt":"2015-08-12T05:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?page_id=1850"},"modified":"2020-07-17T17:34:32","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T22:34:32","slug":"the-piles-of-concrete-came-down","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?page_id=1850","title":{"rendered":"The Piles of Concrete Came Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Country Club Armors High Banks with Chunks of Rubble<\/h3>\n

August 12, 2015<\/p>\n

For months we watched with suspense the towering piles of concrete riprap. They hung heavily over the edge of a high bank on the south side of Buffalo Bayou near the downstream end of one of the loveliest natural stretches of the bayou in the city. It\u2019s a long stretch of the bayou that the Harris County Flood Control District wants to bulldoze and \u201crestore\u201d to a \u201cmore natural state,\u201d so we were apprehensive.<\/p>\n

A row of small telltale colored flags had first appeared near the waterline here and upstream at the upper limit of the area targeted for flood control\u2019s highly destructive Memorial Park Demonstration Project.<\/p>\n

The south bank of the nearly 1.5 mile project area is owned by the River Oaks Country Club, which is a one-third partner in the $6 million public project initiated and promoted by the Bayou Preservation Association.<\/a> The club, which has nearly completed a renovation of its golf course on the bayou, had long threatened to armor its banks with riprap if the \u201cstabilization\u201d project didn\u2019t go through.<\/p>\n

And now the club has carried through on its threat, laying down black plastic sheeting on the steep banks at those two locations downstream and upstream, distributing chunks of concrete on the slopes, and covering the blocks with dirt. Club member Steve Lindley, who is overseeing the riprap work as well as the golf course upgrade for the club, said that the plastic sheeting is porous and biodegradable and that club plans to seed the dirt with grass to keep it from washing away and eventually to plant it with native vegetation such as chili pequin.<\/p>\n

\"Concrete<\/a>

Concrete riprap, dirt, plastic, and straw boom on the south bank of Buffalo Bayou at water’s edge. Photo taken Aug. 9, 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

Most of the north bank of the project is public park, including the natural banks of Memorial Park and the Hogg Bird Sanctuary, which would be largely destroyed by the project along with the bayou’s ecosystem. The district\u2019s plan is to scrape some 80 percent of the riparian forest<\/a>, grade and level the banks including high, very old cliffs and ancient sandstone ledges, and replant them with grass and other things still in the planning. The district would dredge, re-route and deepen the bayou (a section never before channelized), fill in a beautiful meander<\/a> and cut a new channel through the forest, shortening the bayou.<\/p>\n

Still Planning to Participate in the Bulldozing Project<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Lindley said the club is still planning to participate in the flood control project, should the project ever receive a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. The riprap armoring of the banks, which is one of the most environmentally damaging methods of erosion control\u00a0<\/a> in addition to being really ugly and unnatural, is only temporary, said Lindley. If necessary, the concrete chunks can be reused in the demonstration project, Lindley said.<\/p>\n

In its revised permit application to the Corps<\/a>, the flood control district says that \u201c\u2026 isolated bank armoring installed to deflect the erosive shear stress at the point of failure, in most cases, is scoured at one or both of its terminal ends, resulting in eventual failure. This type of armoring redirects stream energy to a new location downstream, creating a new point of stress.\u201d (See page 3.)<\/p>\n

The Negatives of Concrete Riprap<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Here are some of the other negatives of riprap<\/a>:<\/p>\n