Tonight the council demonstrated their ability to withstand factual information of any kind. I delivered these comments along with large scale posters of the two historic photographs.
The Resolution tonight has my full support and should receive a unanimous vote. This project is certainly completed. You completed the heck out of it. I’m unclear why the council asked staff to weigh in on the historic photos discovered by Worth A Dam but you did so I wanted to make sure you had my comments as well.
This first photo, never printed in any newspaper but discussed in the LA Times, shows the de-watered creek in 2000. By itself it refutes the major argument. The Cal Engineering Sept 22 report said the emergency conditions were caused by the widening separation of the bank from the wall.
Obviously, based on this photo there was no bank along the retaining wall historically, so the fact that the soil was separating from the wall is no indication of any urgent situation.
In this photo you can also see that there is a tree planted at the location of the largest crack inside the Bertola’s property. Some of the crack is visible in the photo, as is all of the most likely culprit.
However, the most alarming evidence comes with this 2nd photo, taken in fall of 2001 showing the replanting efforts. Looking along the base is clear that the ridge we were assuming was a footing is in fact sheet pile and concrete. Your recent staff report addresses saying this is an un-engineered wall installed by maintenance that covers a short section for which there are no historical plans. Does that mean maintenance had access to a pile driver? If there are no plans how do you know the wall was un-engineered? Most importantly, This “short section” covers some 70 feet of the Bertola’s wall, which is only 120 feet total. It appears to have concrete poured behind it, and our fluvial geomorphologist confirmed that she saw concrete in exposed patches so that makes sense. Knowing that there are also four pieces of sheet pile nearest the bridge, 2/3 of wall shows existing sheet pile, so it is reasonable to assume it is also along the places where we cannot see as well.
What does this mean? It means that Martinez spent half a million dollars to build a sheetpile wall with concrete in front of a sheetpile wall with concrete.
I didn’t say this at the meeting…but I will say it here with a special thank you to Mr. Colbert:
Knowing how destructive our beavers can be, do you really think two layers is enough?
Silver Lining Alert:
Last night staff reports spent nearly thirty minutes addressing issues raised on this website and put forward by Worth A Dam. Tim Tucker presented an update on the city photos we discovered and his best understanding of them, and Dave Scola was asked to discuss mother beaver’s eye injury and even consulted Skip Lisle and Mary Tappel about it. They certainly would never have been aware of either of these issues if it weren’t for this website and Worth A Dam’s hard work. This is what is known in political circles as “setting the frame”. The city had to respond to us, in instead of the way round. Maybe it’s a November 7th anniversary present, or maybe it’s the influence of the Beaver Moon. Either way, its worth pausing to inhale.
