Roosevelt Creek Channel 5 Update.

The concrete blanket has been installed on the westernmost portion of the weir. Blanket installation will be the focus of activity for the next dew days. After that installation has been finished, a concrete ballast will be poured along the bottom edge of the blanket on both sides which will serve to keep the blanket from shifting as the result of unusual tidal changes (hurricanes, for example). The top of the weir should be four to six inches below the surface of the water at low tide. They expect to have the weir construction completed by April 10 and, at that time, another crew will take over the project.

Before the water barriers can be removed, the drainage pipe linings have to be installed. These are necessitated by the fact that the existing pipes are old and deteriorating at a rapid rate. Removing/replacing those pipes is not a feasible option since they are located between houses and run from the street to the channel. The linings are a fiberglass-like material that is in the form of a tube. It will run from the drain trap in the street to the channel, then inflated to fill the inside of the pipe and heated. Once cooled, it hardens and will have the strength to support the old pipe and any ground weight.

At that time, removal of the water barriers will commence. In all probability the barriers up by the Chick-fil-A will be removed first as that will be a far less complicated activity. To remove the barriers at our end of the channel will require a huge piece of equipment. Specifically, a crane with a 300 foot boom. The channel is 240 feet across at our end.