By Frank Winkler, Flood Commission Chair
Preliminary survey and design has started on treating the stream corridor on Andes Central School property from the NYS Route 28 bridge down to the Delaware County Route 2 bridge. As most of us know, there have been two major stonewall failures and several more areas likely to fail before long.
Dr. Chakar will be working closely with the school board to keep them informed of the needs, proposed plan, and their approval. Cost is certainly a major concern, but we are optimistic that grants will be available to cover most of the cost.
The Delaware County Soil and Water Conservation District Stream Team under the direction of Graydon Dutcher will be doing the survey and design work through existing funding. The basic design concept will be to retain the existing stream channel, but to properly anchor the rock walls along the streambanks to prevent the undermining that is now happening.
Design criteria will dictate the bank height of perhaps 2-3 feet. From that point there will be a relatively flat floodway of perhaps 15 feet before a new stonewall is stepped up to about the height of the existing wall. Actual channel dimensions will be based on state-of-the-art design criteria. This new width to the channel will reduce flooding to the homes across from the school and attempt to retain some of the historic features of the existing wall. This will have a major impact on the tennis courts (if we don’t lose them from bank failure before construction starts.)
This project is one of the major items identified in the Andes Hamlet Flood Analysis completed in 2018. It will solve a major problem of wall failure and reduce flooding to many homes. There is no practical solution to solve all flooding problems, but this will be an important preliminary step toward reducing the hazard.
The school and community will be informed and provided an opportunity for input as the project moves towards construction. Hopefully funding will be obtained so that construction can be done in 2020. ~