Save The Oaks

Devoted to saving the San Francisquito Creek's oak woodlands and biodiversity

Floodwalls Impact on an Neighborhood

January 25, 2014

Floodwalls along Woodland Ave. in East Palo Alto, downstream of University Ave.

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Santa Clara County Water History

January 11, 2014

Santa Clara County does love it's water and bridges - just look at the seal. Timeline from the SCVWD 10 Million B.C. Movement along the San Andreas Fault begins to create California's current coastal configuration. 500,000 B.C. A dropped valley (or graben) forms between the Hayward and San Andreas faults, approximately 500,000 years ago. The Santa Clara Valley is formed as well as the depression that eventually will become the San Francisco Bay. The Santa Clara Valley is an intermediate valley in the Coast Range between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Gavilan Range on the west and the Diablo Range on the east. The valley extends in a south-easterly direction from the San Francisco Bay to an area near Hollister. 20,000 B.C. The last ice age ends. The resulting rise in water creates one of the world's largest estuaries, the San Francisco Bay. 3200 B.C. There is more water in the bowl-shaped Santa Clara Valley than its inhabitants can use. During the winter and ...

Stanford Favors a Flood-Control Fish-Passage for Searsville Dam

May 10, 2015

Photoshop mashup of Searsville Dam and the Pope-Chaucer Bridge culvert. Searsville photo by Matt Stoecker . Culvert photo from The Other Side of Pope-Chaucer . Stanford announced that it has preliminarily chosen to cut a culvert at the bottom of Searsville dam as its preferred option for allowing steelhead to travel past the dam. If the flows exceed the capacity of the culvert, the dam will begin to back up water and reduce flood levels downstream. Searsville water contributes almost half of San Francisquito Creek's flow. "The key question is whether – and how – the sediment can be moved downstream," McCown said. "The possibility of releasing the sediment downstream presents a unique challenge that we must continue studying to ensure that we do the right thing, especially for the communities located downstream of the dam. "Our preferred approach does not preclude the possibility of someday removing the dam. But we have to be confident we don't ...

A Beautiful Concrete Arch Bridge

October 01, 2014

Elliptical arch concrete bridge with stone veneer Assuming that the Pope/Chaucer Bridge must be replaced, what kind of bridge would both function good and look good? One alternative to be considered is an elipitical arch bridge. The SCVWD's initially proposed design is functional for moving cars, but concerns have been raised about trees catching on the supports in the creek bed. Nobody says the SCVWD's initially proposed design looks good. Typical SCVWD bridge design SCVWD's initially proposed Pope/Chaucer bridge design Existing Pope/Chaucer bridge Original Pope/Chaucer bridge Existing Pope/Chaucer culvert bridge design vs. original elliptical arch bridge design Oct 6, 2014 Construction has been completed on the innovative "Bridge in a Backpack" in Fairfield, VT. This bridge is one of only a few in the world to utilize Advanced Infrastructure Technology .