December storms remind us of need for decisive and timely action. Construction of S.F. Bay-Highway 101 project scheduled to begin in summer of 2013, and design and environmental review of projects upstream of Hwy. 101 underway.

The image at left (top) is of the base of the levee along East Palo Alto downstream (east) of Highway 101 where “boils” in the foreground were discovered during the storm of December 23, 2012, indicating water seepage through the levee.  Beyond the boils, along the fence, is evidence of levee overtopping that occurred that night during a Creek flow that was the third highest since 1930 and led to the evacuation of several homes.  On December 24th, crews placed thousands of sandbags to contain the boils, prevent levee erosion, and reduce the chance for further overtopping.
The image at bottom is of water exiting the Creek channel on December 23 onto Woodland Avenue just upstream (north) of the University Avenue bridge.  This location is a known bottleneck in the channel that will be removed as part of the SFCJPA suite of projects upstream of Highway 101 to provide substantially greater flood protection and new ecosystem and recreational benefits.  The SFCJPA has just begun a new Environmental Impact Report to analyze the impacts of these projects.
This work will be discussed during several community meetings over the next 18 months.  The next such opportunity is at a meeting hosted by the City of Palo Alto to discuss the Newell Road bridge replacement project on January 8 at 7:00 p.m. in the Lucie Stern Community Center.  To comment on any SFCJPA activity, join us at a Board meeting or contact us through our contact page.

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