By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members on Tuesday heard a presentation about the extent of damage to a
decades-old concrete wall around one of the city’s two sources of drinking water and
learned the costs of possible fixes.
The council heard an update on a project to repair or rebuild a retaining wall around the
city’s East Spring water pool from International Consulting Engineers (ICE) during the
council’s regular meeting. The wall project has previously been identified as one of the
city’s top three “urgent and important” water infrastructure needs.
Public Works Director Greg Velazquez introduced the presentation, starting by giving the
council an update on the installation of a pump at the city’s West Spring.
“The pump has been installed and is operating as we speak. Tonight we have International Consulting Engineers to do a presentation on the East Springs wall. They’re
going to give us some background, some history and some planning actions on how to
proceed and move forward with the repairs and design of this containment wall,”
Velazquez told the council.
Velazquez introduced Jesus Jimenez of ICE and his partner, Daniel Diaz.
Jimenez said he and Diaz planned to give their Phase I analysis of the East Spring wall,
adding both he and Diaz are “proud graduates” of the Del Rio High School Class of
1995.
“We were tasked to do a Phase I structural investigation of the East Springs wall there on
the grounds of the golf course, and today we will be talking to you about the items we
looked at,” Jimenez said.
He reminded the council the retaining wall around the East Springs was constructed in 1935.
“So it is almost 100 years old, 90 years old. It does have some issues, so we’ll be going
over the findings, and we’re going to give you two proposed solutions,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez reviewed the four-phase approach ICE engineers are using to complete the
project.
“We suggested doing a Phase I because during our first site visit, we saw there was a lot
of horizontal and vertical cracking within the retaining wall,” Jimenez said, reminding council members most of them had seen the damage to the structure first-hand during a
site visit earlier this year.
“It was at the point where it is critical. The cracks are not hairline cracks. You’re talking
about cracks that were two, three inches. Some of them you could stick your whole hand
in, and, given the importance of the structure, it was really quite alarming,” Jimenez said.
He said he also noticed during the first visit to the site that even when the sluice gates on
the wall were closed, water from the East Springs pool is seeping under the structure.
Because the deterioration of the wall “was not typical,” Jimenez said he called for
structural engineers with diving experience to go into the water to further analyze the
damage.
Based on those investigations, Jimenez said ICE began looking at possible solutions for
repairing or reconstructing the damaged retaining wall, providing planning estimates
based on those solutions and developing a series of conceptual drawings of the proposed
solutions.
In Phase 2, he said, ICE will go more in-depth on the proposed “fixes.”
“As you know, we have the Devils River Minnow within the creek and within the
confinements of the detention area, so we’re going to have to get the state involved, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers involved, biologists involved,” Jimenez said.
He noted Phase 3 will be the design, and Phase 4 will be going out for construction bids.
Jimenez showed photos of the structural damage at the wall and went into a detailed
description of the parts of the wall that show the most serious undermining and cracking.
Jimenez said ICE is proposing two possible solutions: repairing the existing structure or
constructing a partial new wall.
“Option number two is actually building a new wall. . . We could replace the whole
structure, but really the function of the detention structure is to hold enough water level to
be able to pump water out, so at this point, we didn’t see the need of having to rebuild the
entire structure,” Jimenez said.
He said for this option, ICE is recommending building a 90-foot-long new wall inside the
existing structure with new sluice gates.
“The existing wall would still have to be reinforced, and we would still need to put a
beam on the west wall,” Jimenez said, adding this option reduces the containment area of
the water, allowing the pool to hold a higher volume of water.
Jimenez presented conceptual drawings showing cross-sections of the new interior wall,
proposed repairs to the retaining wall and the new west wall system.
Jimenez went over the estimated costs of ICE’s recommendations.
He said repairing the estimated cost of repairing the existing containment wall is
currently $1.47 million, and the estimated cost of constructing a new wall system is
currently $1.96 million.
Jimenez also informed the council about a week-and-a-half ago, a large old cottonwood
tree growing close the East Spring pool was blown down by high winds and has further
damaged the wall.
Jimenez then went over next steps in the project.
He reiterated the presence of the minnow is one of the biggest challenges moving forward
with the project, noting both options – repair or new construction – will require
coordination with state and federal agencies.
Jimenez said ICE has been working with a non-profit agency to submit an application to
the Texas Water Development Board Drinking Water State Revolving Fund “for some
funding for this project.”
“And then with approval from council we can proceed to Phase 2 or it could be a
combined Phase 2 and 3, because I know once we get into Phase 2 and we start talking to
all the entities, they are going to want to know design,” he said.
After his presentation, Jimenez invited questions from the council.
Councilman J.P. Sanchez said, “That (proposed cost) is an estimate. We don’t know what
the actual price will be, but I have to agree with their recommendation to go with the
new. You’re looking one-and-a-half million dollars to repair it and almost two million dollars to replace it new, so it’s a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned. You go with the
new.”
“Maybe it’ll last us another 90 years,” Mayor Al Arreola quipped.
The mayor then asked if the city already has funding for the project.
City Manager Shawna Burkhart replied, “No, this will be a part of the Drinking Water
State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) application, and we are only holding off on submitting
those, and I believe they’re due in September, and we simply just have to get our audit in,
to submit with that. Our audit will be submitted to you on April 8.”
Velazquez amended the city manager’s statement, noting that the DWSRF application
had been submitted earlier this month.
Arreola said thanked Jimenez for the presentation and noted that although he typically
“hates” studies and surveys, ICE’s update was “thorough and explained everything.”
Sanchez asked Velazquez some additional questions about the West Springs water
elevation, but council members took no formal action following the presentation.
Reach the writer at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
