Published on February 09, 2017
PRESS RELEASE – February 9, 2017
San Francisquito Creek “Trash Rack” Damaged at West Bayshore Project
Menlo Park Fire Protection District – San Francisco Bay Area
See Video Links – Please Credit Menlo Fire UAS/Drone Program
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fsv5v5cwzt5w2qg/AAAAEvCiyUedX6nHXgpu3N4ea?dl=0
Links from the news
Officials from multiple local jurisdictions and organizations along the San Francisquito Creek, which is the border between San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties as well as the Cities of East Palo Alto, Palo Alto and Menlo Park, all breathed a collective sigh of relief Thursday evening as the threat of a potential blockage due to a build-up of debris under West Bayshore Road because of a broken metal “trash rack”, faded away.
The “trash rack” was installed when construction started on this improvement project last year. The rack is a protective set of metal barriers that prevents large debris from passing under West Bayshore, Highway 101 and East Bayshore Roadways, as Caltrans works to complete this multi-year creek undercrossing and improvement project.
Tuesday’s record making flows on San Francisquito Creek, at 4820 cubic feet per minute, were the 6th largest since annual recording started in the 1930’s. But it wasn’t until the waters started to recede on Wednesday that officials noticed that one of the three barriers had dislodged and was now jammed up under West Bayshore Roadway, creating not only a “strainer effect, but also an unforeseen and difficult retrieval situation because of its location under the roadway structure.
Today’s peak flow reached 1790 cubic feet per minute at 5.16 pm, but many officials remained vigilant until 9pm. The group held several multi-agency conference calls during the day to discuss contingency plans and next steps.
Menlo Park Fire District Captain Tony Eggimann and Engineer/Medic Matt Menard flew one of the Fire Districts newest UAS/Drones today in order to document and capture video footage of the damage and debris, so others in the Creek Joint Powers Authority could directly see the problem.
Fire Chief Schapelhouman said “the guys did a good job of flying the Drone in the rain today, unfortunately the water did effect some of the video footages clarity, but you can still easily see the damaged rack and debris buildup we were concerned about”.
Caltrans has committed to coming up with a retrieval and repair plan by Monday, February 13th, and local officials are anxious to see the opening cleared and repaired before the next set of winter storms is scheduled to enter the Bay Area late next week.
“We had elements of our water rescue team prepared and ready to go today just in case” the Fire Chief said. “Everyone took this very seriously as they should and we are all looking forward to hearing and seeing Caltrans mitigation plan next week” he said.
