Slope Repairs Assist Channel & Protect Properties
About the author:
Winner profiles were compiled by SWS Managing Editor Katie Johns and Associate Editor Cristina Tuser. Johns can be reached at [email protected] and Tuser can be reached at [email protected].
Katie Johns & Cristina Tuser
undefinedLocation: Fort Worth, Texas
Cost: $213,472
Size: 630 feet
Owner & Manager: Robert Chapman
Designer: City of Fort Worth Stormwater Engineering
Contractor: City of Fort Worth Reconstruction Team
Manufacturer: CAT, International & Bomag
A project to repair severe erosion to the slopes of the channel in Fort Worth, Texas, and to restore the slopes with a design that could withstand heavy and continuous water flow began December 2020.
There were channel structures and concrete steps that were beginning to become undermined. Erosion issues were exposing utilities including storm drains, elevated power lines, and sanitary sewer main lines. Private properties were also impacted by erosion.
A mostly in-house operation, with the exception of suppliers for materials, consisting of The Transportation and Public Works Department (TPW) Stormwater Channel Reconstruction Team including crew leaders, senior equipment operators, and equipment operators, tackled the project.
The main challenges were that the slopes were completely gone, and a ramp entrance had to be built into the bottom of the channel and hold up under continuous use.
Channel easement and utility locations and soil types did not allow the team to rebuild the slopes in a way that would tie the natural slope materials to the materials being used to repair the erosion to the slope.
Fill materials, rock, concrete and erosion blankets were all used to tackle the erosion issue. Once design changes were made, the slopes and erosion controls held design grades.
“It has taken on the native characteristics of a natural creek,” said Teanna Thompson, TPW Stormwater Superintendent, Street and Storm Water Operations of the project, which was completed April 2021. “The slopes are intact and vegetated. The channel is working at its designed capacities.”
The design used has been implemented in several locations around Fort Worth, for both small and large projects.
