Video interview and photo gallery: White Rock Lake spillway project in Dallas

by John P. Meyer

Question: What costs $16.7 million and channels 100-year floodwaters safely downstream?

Answer: Right now, nothing, in terms of the White Rock Lake spillway. But that's all fixin' to change, as I discovered when I arranged to meet project manager Cassia Sanchez at the work site early on Monday, July 13.

I quickly found that parking was going to be a problem. The old reliable lot on Winsted (just west of its intersection with Garland Rd.) was closed to all but construction crews, according to the sign. And of course the lot fronting Garland Rd. at San Rafael was long gone, much of it having sloughed into the ditch over three years ago after a particularly heavy spring rain event -- thereby necessitating some of the construction currently in evidence.

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After parking a block or two up San Rafael, I proceeded to do a good bit of walking under the completely cloudless dome of a faded blue North Texas sky. And it was all downhill, which was fine for now, but boded ill for my return trip -- when it would be a good deal hotter.

I didn't even have a hat, though that issue was remedied shortly after my entry onto the site, whence the donning of a hardhat and day-glo safety jacket became mandatory. At least this kept my pate from turning a glowing cherry red.

Cassia Sanchez grew up in Alamogordo, New Mexico and moved to Texas about seven years ago, eventually going to work for Dallas Water Utilities. She's now very pleased to be heading up a project with considerably higher visibility than most -- which typically involve buried pipes or waste water treatment plants, rather than decorative parkways and high-profile hydrological spectacles.

The scope of the spillway project is greater than casual passersby might imagine, although local environmental and community groups (such as For the Love of the Lake) have been keyed in on the city's plans from the beginning, thanks to a wide-open door policy on the part of municipal planners.

Water Utilities is working in conjunction with the Parks Dept and construction contractor Rebcon, Inc. to repair the collapsed parking lot area, upgrade the retaining walls (and other spillway elements), and provide new and improved facilities for viewing future epic runoff events -- which people just love to gawk at, for some damn reason. Three circular cantilever overlooks are planned for various points around the spillway.

While the project is in process, the bike/hike trail around the lake is being kept open. Along Garland Rd. (where the parking lot USED to be) it's currently occupying the former right-hand lane of the roadway, while the clever planners have maintained a full three traffic lanes on the roadway by taking out the left-turn lane for San Rafael at that point.

As we walked through the late morning glare up to the overview of the spillway itself, workers were preparing to pour concrete into the retaining wall just off Garland Rd., which they're making it MUCH taller than the original one: The intent is to confine all the runoff to the spillway, even during historically-record flood events. Turns out part of the problem that led to the collapse of the original parking lot (and the destabilization of additional surrounding streambanks) had to do with high water escaping the channel designed to encompass it, and eating away at structures it was never supposed to be swirling around.

So far, the wildlife population of the area seems oblivious to the intervention of human engineers and construction crews -- we saw fish flopping and shorebirds romping in the water all around us during our visit.

There is a provision built into the construction contract allowing for up to a 30" reduction in lake levels if necessitated in order to make some aspects of the construction safer for workers -- though according to Cassia, this potentially ecologically impactful action has not yet been required, due mostly to our seasonally-dry North Texas weather.

Contractor Rebcon Inc. is also working with TXDOT on the Northwest Highway construction at the north end of the lake, which we reported on earlier this year.

Work on the spillway project is scheduled to be completed in first quarter 2010, barring unforeseen weather events.