Month of Gratitude Day 15: It's done

Nobody has said for sure, but I think the canal project is finally complete.  There are still a few orange cones and some large piles of rock and dirt, but the roads are open, concrete has been laid, and we haven't seen any large trucks at work in the past week or so.  I've been collecting pictures of this project for over a year now, just so that I could blog it.  Thirteen months ago, about the beginning of October, 2012, the canal that has flowed near our home for probably a hundred years was shut off and work began to enclose it in a pipe.  People who live along the canal have had mixed feelings about this work.  Many were angry about losing their lovely little waterway.  Some felt that the money was being spent rashly and that there were better solutions.  Others felt that the work was important because it allowed increased water to get to the farmers, replacing another canal that three years ago washed out and in its wake took three homes and three lives.  I know that my neighbors just below the canal have fought water in their basements and I hope that by piping the canal that issue will be solved.

The canal would be piped first through a square concrete pipe and then into a round 66 inch pipe from where it left the river to a diversion structure just below our house.  At that point, half the water would go north in the old unchanged channel and the other half would go under the road and down the hill to the north part of the lower canal.

Just over a year ago, without our knowing it would happen, the road below us was closed. They didn't tell us that it would take nine months to build that diversion structure and that we would be cut off from the world all that time.  We had two options to get anywhere and both were quite a bit out of the way.  One of those options had two canal crossings which were alternately shut down through the winter.  This road closure lasted 9 months.  Our neighbor Becky calculated that her daily detour to and from work was four miles.  Bryce was a little bit luckier since the southern access option got him in the general direction he wanted to go.

We think that they took advantage of having using the closed road to store their equipment and use as an access road and it was very convenient for them to keep it closed and us cut off.

Here's the diversion structure from the north as the water flows into the old canal.  That round hole is the path of water flowing from a new mini canal that was built as a peace making device for the irate neighbors (and also to catch runoff from rain.)

It was so exciting to get our road back that I took this photo from inside my friend's car as we went through for the first time.








After the pipe was all installed and water returned to the farmers, work began on that little runoff channel. 

It required lots of machines, lots of earth moving and big piles of rocks and soil.

 The carefully constructed channel was double lined and then covered with rock.

 In some places it's quite pretty, in others (nearest our house) it's pretty boring.

The mini canal project had water in it for just a couple of weeks.  We'll see next year if the ducks come back or if they gave up after a whole summer of dust, trucks and lack of water.  

Meanwhile, I'm very grateful that it appears to be finished and this winter we'll have our road again.