The City of Santa Cruz, CA is scheduled to begin a second sediment disking in the San Lorenzo River Flood Control Project between the Highway 1 and Water Street bridges today.
This work is intended to improve the flood carrying capacity of the river in anticipation of predicted extreme winter storms.
The scheme, approved by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, is expected to continue through Friday, December 18, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
The City performs a wide variety of flood control maintenance activities annually. One of these activities is the disking of the San Lorenzo River bottom between the Highway 1 and Water Street bridges.
This was undertaken in September 2015, however, given the continuing predictions of potentially intense winter El Niño storms, the City has planned a second disking with a deeper grab to better loosen the sediment and allow a greater volume of sediment to be transported through the area during any potential storm events.
The current levees, according to a 2014 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report, can handle a projected 100 year storm, however, it is not possible to predict water events from an El Niño storm. Given uncertainty in the current storm predictions, it was considered prudent to add this additional level of protection.
[mappress mapid=”21693″]