Thursday, August 29, 2013

Latest Bicycle Bridge Environmental Degradation Data

Gee guess what, the problem didn't magically fix itself but I've never seen IGNORING a problem to ever get positive results, just a little Fact of Nature. Currently the City of Davenport is trying to figure out what to do with the insurance settlement for the lodge that burnt down this spring. Rebuilding on the Flood Plain doesn't make a lot of sense but Emotion rather than Logic will decide that. Where the money needs to be spent is obvious, the Harbor is a mess (Roughly half is dry ground now at 4 ft tail levels) At the very MINIMUM they need to correct their mistakes made removing the causeway they built, it is simply NOT in compliance with the Corps Permit

Here's some depth maps I made earlier this year showing the problem is OBVIOUSLY still there and isn't going to go away all on it's own .... If the river going over Flood Stage 4 times and a record continuopus high level for 3 months didn't change it nothing will .... OBVIOUSLY






Since interpolation algorithms used to project these 3D maps tend to round off surfaces I bought a new fish finder (Lowrance Elite 7x HDI 7" widescreen) with Downscanning Imaging and have started to collect data with it. The first ones are leaving the harbor going from the top of the map to the bottom followed by pictures of the downscanning image showing a true representation of the shapes. Rivers level was 4.3 ft. and the 4.3 showing on the 7x is just a coincidence, that's just the depth where I stopped to scroll back and freeze the 7x so I could take a picture




This one is less than a foot below the surface at 4.3 ft tail and it's rock not mud (I have the nicks in my prop from last Oct. to prove it)


And here's some shots this time coming back from bottom to top just a few yards from the other path




As you can see there is a CONSIDERABLE amount of waste left here and less than 2 feet below the surface. This is in the middle and it's a lot worse on either side, especially the west side with it's lower unit and prop killing rocks

Here's a map shot of both paths so you can see how they relate to each other


Note also that these background maps from Google where taken at fairly high river levels between 10 and 11 ft and currently the river is 7 feet lower. Here is an photomap of what the harbor looks like at current levels, it's a little worse today, this was from late June 2007