BOARD00021

• Board Meeting Date: 7/12/1965
• Description: Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

7...JVU

NR. SL1ZESKI:

NR. STAPLETON:

l-IR. SL1ZESla:

NR. . STAPLETON:

NR. SL1ZESra:

water up and spreading the flood plain out.
All this contributed substantially to the loss
that would not otherwise have occurred if we'd
had a clear channel, a well-defined channel,
with arch bridges that didn't clutter the
channel bed.

I

l~ow is this a fair statement of the condi-
tion of the South Platte in the Denver area
in the flood?"

"I can't agree entirely with that state-
ment, ~tt. Stapleton. For instance, the Hampden
Avenue bridge. Now it failed and, according
to our flood plain information reports, its
low steel should have been clear of the water
surface profile of a flood greater in magni-
tude than occurred. Now the reason that it
did fail is because of all the debris that
piled in on it. He warn, in our flood plain
information reports, that this could happen
but there is no way to evaluate this hydrauli-
cally and say that it will happen. The reason
for it is, you get trailers in there, you get
your buildings in there, and they pile up and
obstruct flow and the pressure on the bridge
then causes it to fail. The Hampden Avenue
span was a tremendous span and it has suffi-
cient clearance. And several other bridges,
on Sand Creek the Peoria Street bridge had
sufficient clearance. Others did not."

"Belleview, for example."

"Belleview is upstream and on the South
Platte again."

"Yes."

"peoria Street bridge failed and we checked
that out. The reason it did fail, its center
span failed, was because the flood had uprooted
two huge cottonwood trees, I imagine right at
the confluence of Toll Gate and Sand Creeks,
and slammed this into.the center span and took
out that peoria Street bridge.

I