Erosion Threatening Springdale Street

STAFF PHOTO ANTHONY REYES Water running through an open ditch is starting to undermine the road surface in places along Cambridge Street in Springdale.

STAFF PHOTO ANTHONY REYES Water running through an open ditch is starting to undermine the road surface in places along Cambridge Street in Springdale.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

SPRINGDALE -- The spring rain may be good for flowers, but the storm water has been rough on a city street that is in danger of washing out.

A growing ditch along a section of Cambridge Street between John Tyson Elementary School and Tyson Foods Headquarters is threatening the street's pavement, said Sam Goade, city director of public works.

At A Glance

Erosion Control with Gabion Baskets

Gabions are rectangular wire mesh baskets filled with rock at the project site to form flexible, permeable, monolithic structures such as retaining walls for commercial, industrial and road projects. When gabions are filled with stone, they become large, flexible building blocks from which a broad range of structures can be built. Gabions are also used for erosion control, bank stabilization, channel linings and weirs.

Source: Maccaferri Engineering Website

"We may come in after a large rain event and find half of the road gone," Goade said. "It's become a high priority to get moving on."

City Council members discussed the street's drainage problems at its June 2 committee meetings. Any solution built now could be removed, said Alan Pugh, city director of engineering, since the city's master street plan calls for the street to be widened.

"We don't want to tear it out soon after we build it," Pugh said.

The street division has made temporary repairs by placing large limestone boulders at major erosion spots, Goade said. The repairs only delay the problem.

"The energy in the water just moves to the next vulnerable spot," Goade said. "It's really eating at the banks on both sides."

The erosion runs along the west side of the street beginning south of the elementary school. In two or three spots, the erosion starts at the edge of the pavement. Bare dirt shows for about 1,250 feet, to where curb, gutters and street drainage was installed adjacent to Tyson headquarters. The water flows under the street and emerges on the east side by Temple Baptist Church. The erosion is not as bad on that side, but water from the ditch floods yards in the area, said Micah Neal, a Springdale business owner and state representative.

Neal lived for 10 years on Oxford Place, which runs off of Cambridge south of the church. He still owns a house on Oxford.

The street is used by people going to work at Tyson Foods and to three schools -- Tyson Elementary, Southwest Junior High and Shiloh Christian School, Neal said.

"When it rains, the whole road floods," Neal said. "Something needs to be done."

The best option may be using gabion baskets, Pugh said. Gabion baskets are made from wire containers filled with gravel used to control erosion. Water can seep through, but the process slows the flow, according to gabionbaskets.net.

The plan would use the baskets next to the street. The bottom of the ditch would be paved, and the side of the ditch would be sloped away from the street, Pugh said. A rough estimate of the cost is $400,000, he said, not including the price of engineering or utility relocation.

The baskets could be disassembled and reused when the street is widened, Pugh said.

The council did not make a decision, said Jeff Watson, alderman.

"We're waiting for the staff to come back with a more detailed proposal," Watson said.

A source to pay for the work has not been found, Pugh said.

NW News on 06/10/2014