April 1, 2011
The City of Gardner, Kansas was concerned about how surrounding development would affect their streamway park. Terra Technologies Inc. was retained to perform a geomorphic stream assessment to determine potential impacts of development and recommend actions that will prevent or minimize the effect of such impacts on the stream. The primary concern was the effect of a new storm drainage system that moved the discharge point of a tributary drainage area a short distance upstream of where that drainage area historically entered the stream.
The study was completed in the fall of 2010. Findings revealed that the stream had remained predominantly in the same alignment for the past fifty years, but geomorphic transitions caused by watershed development were beginning to be exhibited.
Recommendations included the construction of grade control structures configured as bendway weirs and the relocation of a pedestrian bridge originally constructed at a location of current channel instability. The City of Gardner is currently reviewing the findings and beginning the budgeting process to incorporate the recommendations into the City’s Capital Improvements Program.
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