Main Street Dam project moving forward

[citizen]

Article from the East Windsor Patch today:

http://eastwindsor.patch.com/articles/cranbury-brainerd-lake-dam-repairs-moving-forward

Here's what I don't understand and hopefully a TC member or someone who was there can clarify.

I always have heard the primary motivation for the project was that over time the structural integrity of the Main Street bridge was becoming compromised, by the age, design, roots of the trees that needed to be removed and floods over the years. So the core reason for doing this now was necessity not flood control or aesthetics. And they specifically state that early in the article.

Yet the article then goes on the list the scope and things being done and most seem like flood control and aesthetics -- increasing the spillway, removing the concrete beach on the far side, increasing the slope of the gravel roadway to the school fields and preserve, etc. I didn't see mention about the tree removal or the structural integrity of the roadway, etc. Then the Mayor even says he hopes this will prevent flood damage like Irene, which was at least a 50-year storm. Yet the secondary flood benefit from the work was only supposed to help a 10-year storm.

So the stated goal seems to contradict the scope and the Mayor's later statement in the article, unless the Patch reporter simply did a terrible job at listing the scope of work.

[Project]

The article missed some points as I was there.

The project was due to structural integrity. However, the engineers looked to see how the sam was operating. The tube under the roadway it was found had capacity that could be used, but was not due to the size of the current spillway.

As a result, they determined that as part of the structural work they could increase the size of the spill way and help with flooding.

They said that this change would solve flooding between 5 and 10 yr storms. Dave said clearly Hurricane Irene would not be solved.

The work on the west property is mainly due to getting flood waters back to the brook on the other side of the lake.

As part of the road work they are dropping Main St slightly to allow better water flow if the spillway gets over run.

So the project is not flood control as the main point, but flooding to some extent can be fixed as a result of the Main St work.

For the trees they will come down, but no replanting plan is finalized.

[summary]

[What the]

Dam if you, dam if you don't

[publius]

Problem is, that the 50 year storms are coming around about every 10 years or so!