FLOOD05149

• County: Delta
• Community: Delta
• Stream Name: Gunnison, Uncompahgre Rivers
• Basin: Gunnison
• Title: Cost Estimates for Removal of Debris, Bank Protection and River Training Along the Uncompahgre, Gunnison and the North Fork of the Gunnison Rivers
• Date: 1/1/1980
• Prepared For: Delta County
• Prepared By: Mt Highland Engineering
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Miscellaneous

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piers and {probably washout one or two structures, The costs of
damage to the bridges and the cost ofdemergericy work during the
flood can be expected to equal last year's damage of $284,000. If
one bridge is lost, and cost could increase by as little as
$150,000 for a smaller structure to $400,000 for a major bridge.
If the five critical bridges identified above are lost or damaged,
flood damage expenditures could be increased by as high as
$2,000,000. (Appendix D inventories all bridges which could
sustain damage by flooding.)

Flood water diverted into the new channels adjacent to the farms
will continue last years erosion of arable farm ground. The cost
to Delta County landowners could be as high as last year's
conse'rvative cost estimate of $880,000 to farmland, roads, fences
and houses. Again, much of last year's damage was unreported.

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A lower-than-normal runoff cannot be expected to cause as much
damage and the costs would be limited to normal emergency work to
remove the debris and some large trees from the bridges with
center piers. The costs would not be expected to exceed half the
cost of last year's cleanup or $80,000. However, the majority of
the debris would stay in the channels, waiting for the next year's
runoff. '

rIf nothing is done to cleanup the debris or to re-establish the
channels, the cost of next year's flooding could be as low as
L_ $600,000 for a normal flood or as high as $1,600,000
'-I $3,000,000. These costs will continue to be unacceptably high
until a comprehensive solution is implemented.

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COST SAVINGS/BENEFITS IF DEB~IS ~EMOVAL & PRIORITY CHANNELIZATION
IS COMPLETED

Under the assumption that debris removal, bank protection and
channelization is completed before the 1985 flood runoff begins,
damage to bridges and other public and private improvements could
be significantly reduced. These flood improvement expenditures
could also reduce the amount of money spent in an emergency to
clear debris from under bridges during a flood, an extremely
hazardous. job.

If the spring runoff is high, the damage to existing bridges could
be limited to 10% of last year's damage or $10,000 under the
assumptions in the above paragraph. The cost of emergency work in
1984 largely involved removal of debris from County bridges and
bank protection. This can be reduced to one-quarter that of last
year's expenditures or $40,000. Emergency work during a normal
runoff year would also be significantly reduced because of the
lower water and the normal work of removing debris from bridges
and bank protection would have been completed prior to the flood.
The emergency work could be estimated at a minimal amount or
$5,000.

Because the damage to bridges in 1984 was mainly caused by debris
and debris removal the probable damage to bridges also could be

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