{"id":10261,"date":"2021-08-26T20:16:05","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T01:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=10261"},"modified":"2021-12-24T22:21:54","modified_gmt":"2021-12-25T04:21:54","slug":"cutting-and-scraping-pounding-sheet-pile-update-on-bank-work-at-bayou-bend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=10261","title":{"rendered":"Cutting and Scraping, Pounding Sheet Pile: Update on Bank Work at Bayou Bend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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And a Word About the Bank \u201cStabilization\u201d Plans in Memorial Park<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aug. 26, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve been meaning to update you on the \u201crestoration\u201d work on the south bank of Buffalo Bayou below the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens<\/a>. (Although perhaps more significant are the still-developing plans for the banks in Memorial Park. See below.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bank below Bayou Bend is a section of the bayou upstream of the Shepherd Bridge at the end of Westcott Street. Now owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, it\u2019s the former home of philanthropist and art collector Ima Hogg<\/a>, who also donated the 15.5 acres that are now the Hogg Bird Sanctuary<\/a> on the north bank opposite the gardens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bayou Bend bank project involves cutting trees, stripping, grading, and pounding sheet pile and concrete into the bank. It was designed by the engineering firm Stantec,<\/a> which has also been hired to develop the controversial bank scraping and \u201cstabilization\u201d project<\/a> in a little-known forested section of Memorial Park west of Loop 610 called the Old Archery Range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While parts of the bank at Bayou Bend now undergoing repairs<\/a> previously have been reinforced with riprap, the natural bank along Memorial Park further upstream is perhaps the last publicly-accessible stretch where one can observe layers of our geologic history and witness the dynamic natural functioning of the living river, which is increasingly being smothered by concrete, metal, and bulldozers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Losing Land Versus Signing It Away<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Memorial Park project is being proposed because the park is \u201closing land,\u201d according to Shellye Arnold, chief executive officer of the Memorial Park Conservancy<\/a>. But ironically, the plan proposed so far would slice through meanders, reroute the bayou, and cut off public access to public land, effectively signing over public property to private owners, including commercial interests<\/a>. Note that this park project is sponsored in part by the Uptown Development Authority (TIRZ 16<\/a>), an unelected board of mostly large, local property owners and developers which diverts for its own interests property taxes (public money) that would otherwise go into the city\u2019s general fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked recently how people would have access to the public land that would be cut off by rerouting the bayou, Randy Odinet, vice president for of capital projects with the Memorial Park Conservancy, responded, \u201cThat\u2019s a good question.\u201d But he also pointed out that the analysis and plans for the Old Archery Range were still in development, delayed in part by heavy rains. We\u2019ll have more of an update on that soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some photos of the work at Bayou Bend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SC<\/p>\n\n\n\n