Balls of Steel: Rat Creek photos, Friday 4/2/21

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• I have no WORDS!!!

• Makes me glad I drive a desk.

• TAKES YEARS OF EXPERIENCE TO BE THAT CONFIDENT IF EVER!!!

  • You are so, so right.

• In the absence of detailed engineering information, certainly, I can only (provisionally) conclude that the rebuilding of the same kind of structure that failed, while merely upsizing the drainage works, that someone is living in a dreamworld. IF storm intensities and periods increase with climate change as widely predicted, some future taxpayers will have to endure a similar failure, perhaps worse than this last one. Yes, it may take decades. But it might not. The conditions that created this failure could occur again, and size (short of a bridge) won't matter, as has previously been pointed out by another post by someone else.

  I am presuming that this structure is not being build to dam standards. Even when compacted to "standards," a pile of unconsolidated material is still unconsolidated. And even big culverts can clog, as can overflow structures. Surficial rilling and gullying is inevitable, and planting on a fill of ninety percent of maximum dry density will reduce soil pore space to the point no plant roots (or much water) can penetrate (until the structure weathers to a substandard condition, which will invite surficial slope failure). Yes, this issue can be "resolved" by periodically rebuilding the surface, but it's an unending process. The presence of roots indicates substandard compaction, and can (commonly does) lead to slope failure.

  On the upstream face, any buildup of water for a calculable length of time, can be expected to force water into the native/embankment soil interface in time. Such a buildup also can result in accelerated weathering of the compacted embankment a bit faster than the downstream surface. Unfortunately, earthquakes, even ones one doesn't "feel," can affect the integrity of the unconsolidated structure. That is a predictable unknown--as it were . . .

  Please kerrect my errers.

  • Rock Knocker agrees and says something I can rephrase as “right on.”

• 😲WOW - that makes my stomach feel funny.🤢 I'm telling myself ... it's the angle ... it's the angle. 📸😬 ...gusty !!!

• Not only is it the experience one gains thru the years -- It's knowing just what your equipment is capable of + having 'top notch' equipment that you can put your faith in, and trust your life with.

• Where are they getting this huge volume of dirt from?

• We missed you Wayne. I for one, def love reading your insight into this project and process. Thanks for more information, and detail.

• We were talking with a driver last week. The crews are super motivated to get done and gone - no cell reception, no internet on site!!

  • And the bonuses don’t hurt.

• Well earned bonus. Balls of steel deserve hazard pay.