As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the contractor building a new maintenance facility at Loch Raven, busted a hole in the 10′ water pipe.

The site of the new complex, along the west bank of the Gunpowder River. The caution sign is the area where they broke the pipe. It is now covered with steel plates.

Here is what the conduit looked like when it was installed in 1913. It is a steel pipe, welded and riveted together.

As the conduit was installed, they encased some sections of it in concrete, to give it some strength. Loch Raven Drive is directly above this pipe in some areas.

Looking under the steel plate I ask – how the hell do you NOT know that this pipeline is there?? In the photo can be seen above the wood stake, water pouring out of the pipe. Surrounding the stake is the rebar the contractor had to break thru in the cement to strike the steel pipe. The contractor is lucky that the dam has two independent conduits coming out of it.

There was built a parallel pipeline back in 1972. I’m not sure why or even why it is called the Parallel Pipeline. It kind of zig-zags across the river.

The contractors of 1972 had their fair share of problems – like the worksite getting flooded. The lower, smaller dam is in the background.

In order for the present day contractor to fix the hole he made, the City was asked to drain the pipe.

After searching thru some old drawings, we were able to find the location of the drain pipe. This is a 12″ drain connected to a 10′ pipe.

My favorite valve guys came out to try and open it by hand but were unable to. It has been a very long time since this was open. They ended up having the contractor core drill a hole in the vault roof above the valve. They then used their valve truck to turn it.

This is at 8 turns, 20% open. This will take quite a while to drain. The contractor is impatient.

But. as you can see, opening it up too far will erode the stream bank right under this bridge. Today the contractor was given the ok to place steel plates in the stream to divert the flow away from the bank.

Meanwhile, I roamed around some and took some pics – of other than work related stuff. A stone snowman walking his stone snow duck.

Root system.

View across the reservoir. Days like this, I like my job…