While last week’s powerful rainstorm was kinder to local infrastructure than many had feared, the Lower Mission Creek Flood Control project near Santa Barbara’s Amtrak station did not fare so well.
Runoff from heavy rains last Friday abruptly swelled the creek into a surging river, the force of which broke off existing sandstone channel walls, said Jim Lash, vice president of the project’s contractor, Lash Construction.
Those walls fell onto the rest of the culvert construction and turned much of the woodwork into piles of debris.
The construction, which will eventually be buried underground, is part of a greater 1.3-mile project to widen the channel, and will connect to already-built culverts below the adjacent railroad tracks.
It has been constructed “a block at a time” as funding is acquired, said Santa Barbara County Flood Control District engineering manager Jon Frye.
The overall project at Chapala and Yanonali streets, which has been in the works for years, is a partnership involving the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the city and the Flood Control District, and will help direct the flow of excess water along the Mission Creek channel.
Lash said the walls had survived several recent episodes of surging water just fine, but this time the water level was reaching up to the bottom of the existing bridge at Yanonali Street.
“There was still a sliver of space under the bridge, and I knew that if it went up another six or eight inches, it was going to hit the bridge and start to divert and go everywhere,” said Sandy Campbell, the owner of Chapala Gardens, an aeroponics community-farm exhibit located along the creek.
After checking on his property, Campbell said, he found that “the entire excavated area was flooded to the top with water.”
“It had just caved in,” he said.
With crews still taking stock of the damage, Lash said he wasn’t sure what the new construction delays or costs would be, but estimated that repairs could add up to several hundred thousand dollars.
An emergency permit would be needed to start new work in the creek, he added.
The sandstone walls would have to be replaced first.
Before last week’s storm, builders were hoping to have the part of Yanonali Street that crosses Mission Creek open sometime in March.
More rain was expected to fall Monday night through Tuesday night, though not as intensely as last week’s storms.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
