Gabion baskets filled with native brown sandstone were used along the east edge of Tanglewood Branch to establish a solid base to reconstruct the hillside below Frisco Trail.
Photo: Todd Gill, Flyer staff
Repairs to a heavily damaged section of Frisco Trail are complete just south of the Center Street trail crossing.
Last year’s heavy floods caused a large portion of the streamside slope leading up to the trail to be washed away taking several pieces of the path’s asphalt with it.
Cyclists and joggers were forced to use a temporary, gravel detour path during construction, but the fully-repaired paved trail was reopened Thursday evening.
The project included construction of gabion baskets with native brown sandstone along the east edge of the creek to establish a solid base to reconstruct the hillside above. A new retaining wall was then be constructed above the new structural hillside and a new asphalt trail was built above the wall. A new drainage swale and storm drainage inlet was also installed on the east side of the trail to prevent the water from crossing the trail and wall.
According to a city officials, FEMA will reimburse the city with 75 percent of eligible expenses. The Arkansas Department of Energy Management will then reimburse another 12.5 percent.
Before the repair
After the repair
Wow, they did an awesome job.
looks fantastic
Great before and after photos. Excellent repair. Thank you City of Fayetteville for making this a priority.
What a beautiful creek! It is the same creek that is covered up by the WAC parking lot. Imagine how beautiful it could be in the heart of the entertainment district.
Actually, the creek was pretty dismal before it was enclosed and covered. Access to it involved a few dangerous level changes, as well. It did have some potential, but realizing that potential would have made the creek pretty much an artificial feature.
Mmm, an asphalt parking lot vs. green area around creek.
“Actually, the creek was pretty dismal before it was enclosed and covered.”
A dismal pronouncement. There was running water there. Birds, turtles, etc. were able to live there until…. how many trees were removed at dawn when picketers were absent? It would make a lot of good green enviro-sense to uncover what’s left, officially test the soil and water (I understand some soil was removed after the trees were cut), and without prejudice see what can be done to gradually restore that part of the creek, which after all is part of a creek system. It’s nice to know you think it had potential.
A leaky roof has running water; running water is not a good thing in and of itself. Except for the area near the corner of West and Dickson (where it was several feet below grade), the creek was pretty dismal: it ran past a couple of parking lots, and the Arkhola concrete plant before disappearing in the vicinity of the old Campbell’s Soup factory. I’m not particularly offended by an industrial environment, but compared to the stretch of the creekside shown in the article and commented on above, the section of the creek now under the WAC parking lot was pretty dismal.
I was one of those picketers because I wanted the city to preserve the site and turn it into a park. (I might have spoken at one of the gatherings.) That was over twenty years ago. Fayetteville and Dickson Street have grown, and I no longer believe that turning that site into a park at ground level is the best use for the property.. If you want an essentially artificial water feature, put one in a rooftop park on top of a multipurpose development that would provide more benefits to the Dickson Street area.
By the way– the desire was not to turn the entire parking lot area into a park– just the part near the intersection of Dickson and West. A parking lot was inevitable, and we knew that.
It could be done, and it could potentially be fantastic, but I doubt it ever will. It would be a monumental task to make it even remotely pleasant. The section under the WAC lot is all contained in concrete, but I think thats the least of our problems. The scene under Dickson is utterly disgusting and scary. It is full of rats, chemicals, garbage, hundred-year old rotten wooden beams, weird passages underneath all of the buildings, and a lot of the nasty food waste and floor moppings from all of those restaurants and bars end up down there. It is quite an adventure to explore, and it would be amazing to have a park instead of parking, but I can’t imagine that creek ever seeing the surface again in a park-like setting. But maybe I’m wrong.
Vandelay – Has all that happened since the WAC was paved over? The part where the parking lot is now didn’t look quite that bad, though some surmised it had been affected by proximity to power station. Love your description. From that, the city could rent access for apocalyptic movie sets.
I explored the length of those tunnels all the way up to the square in the mid-90′s, and then accessed the Dickson street section again in about 2000-2002 from the basements of a couple of the businesses where I worked. The WAC segment was brand new in the 90′s, as was some of the drainage coming from the square, but the Dickson area was totally Goonies-esque (without the pirate treasure, sadly.) It is fascinating and there is some really cool old stonework and frightening wooden structures down there. There are drains in place which are supposed to catch all of that runoff from Dickson street businesses, but the fact is that those buildings from the brew pub to rogue are in horrid condition on the sublevels, they have archaic drain pipes, and the general nature of restaurants and bars produces lots of disgusting runoff.
It does look like a good repair, but it should never have taken this long. A minor street with this kind of damage would’ve been fixed inside of a month. We should place trails at an equal level.
Funds for street and trail repairs come from different sources, and in this case the FEMA paperwork probably delayed the work.
“A parking lot was inevitable, and we knew that.” I don’t know who you mean by “we”.
There were 350 people at a single gathering to ask to save the green area. Did you share your knowledge there of how dismal the creek bed was? Yes, it was a long time ago, the town has changed considerably, and so has our perception of the landscape. If the creek were there today, and pristine, would we value it as is? or would we want it to earn its existence economically? My point is simply that other Fayettevalues have replaced the ones some of us shared 20 years ago.
By “we”, I mean Frank Sharp, the other protest organizers, myself, and all of the other protestors I talked to. There was not going to be a Walton Arts Center without a parking lot across West Avenue from it.
As I said above, although the area near the intersection of West and Dickson was pretty nice, with quite a bit of potential– and that was the part of the creek that we were asking to preserve– the rest of the creek was pretty dismal.
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
I like both. On a societal level, the best dreams of the future respect history. However we might try to ignore it, human history is a continuum.
Props to Thomas Jefferson for the quote.