BB Clarke Beach . . . that is . . .
There’s a couple meetings coming up if you are interested:
Hello all,
I wanted to give you a quick update and some upcoming meeting dates for the BB Clarke Shoreline project. As you may recall, the project involves stabilizing the shoreline of the park with riprap (boulders), construction of a short stepped-stone access area east of the beach house, and landscaping.
Following our public meeting on 10/26/10, we submitted our permit application to the WI DNR in November. Assuming that we are granted a permit and that we receive this permit in a timely fashion, we plan to bid the project out in Feb. 2011, with construction potentially beginning in mid April 2011.
In the nearer term, the project will go to the Board of Public Works for consideration on 1/5/2011, and to the Common Council on 1/18/2011. You can find agendas for these meetings (and other City meetings as well) closer to the dates here:
http://legistar.cityofmadison.com/calendar/#current
As always, feel free to contact me with questions.
Regards,
Lisa ColemanLisa R. Coleman, P.E.
Engineer 4
City of Madison Engineering Division
Some people are concerned about riprap not being the best solution. Here’s why . . .
from the Minnesota DNR site:
What can I do to prevent erosion?
Two general methods are available to prevent your lakeshore from eroding: hard armoring and soft armoring. The most common hard-armor technique is riprap, which consists of placing large rocks in the water and up the slope of the eroding shoreline.Riprap is commonly used to control erosion along streambanks and lakeshores where vegetation is not sufficient to prevent erosion caused by high water or wave action. It is expensive to install and is often installed incorrectly. If installed properly, however, riprap normally provides good protection from the impact of waves, stream velocities and ice. Some believe that riprapis overused and unsightly and that Minnesota lakes have lost much of their natural shoreline to riprap.
In contrast to hard-armor techniques, soft-armor methods use organic and inorganic materials combined with plants to create a living barrier of protection. Bioengineering, a soft-armor method, provides erosion control through the use of live vegetation. Bioengineering can be used in addition to or in place of hard armor such as rock riprap. It creates a more natural, environmentally friendly shoreline that includes additional benefits to erosion control, such as habitat enhancement. Specific to rivers and streams, DNR Waters published a booklet in 1991 called ?Streambank Erosion: Gaining A Greater Understanding, August 1991?, which is available in limited quantities from our Stream Hydrology Program personnel in St. Paul.
So, now I’m curious . . . why not, not riprap?
Many people know more about this than I, but here’s my semi-informed opinion:
– Shoreline plantings are much more complicated than riprap. Somebody with experience has to choose, buy, and install the plants. Nothing complicated about rocks.
– They’re probably more expensive to install.
– They have to be maintained, at least for awhile, or they’ll be overrun by invasives or washed away.
– The public doesn’t like plants because they’re tall and “weedy” and inhibit access to the water. I think this is the hardest problem.
There are big benefits to using plants, though. They discourage geese, clean the water, reduce runoff, provide habitat. There’s even a beetle that eats milfoil, but it overwinters in plants along the shore. No plants, no beetle. Etc, etc.