Hey Dave;
Buder Park is actually old river bottom, and the Meramac River is just about a half mile away in it's current channel. It floods occasionally, the Meramac has gotten high enough to close I-44 that runs East-West just to the south. But there have been LOTS of changes in the surrounding typography, I think it is called. Lots of earth has been moved, whole stone cliffs removed to make land available for development, and up stream in the Meramac River Valley, lots of development where lots of new housing developments, shopping centers and required parking lots, all let rain water move downstream in greater amounts and a heck of a lot faster. They built a levee on the north side of the river in Valley Park, and that is still being fought over and discussed as to whether it was built to the correct height and such. The end result, and is easy to understand, is that Buder WILL flood more often now, global warming of no. The control line circles are higher than the rest of the park, and don't get as much water on it as the R/C and what I call the "lower" areas of the park. Some think that the circles and square pad didn't sink, but the ground around them raised up from flood deposits, but I answer that this isn't the Mississippi River Delta! It's just old river bottom gumbo and a heck of a long way down to any bedrock. The decision was made to put a 2" cap on the square pad two years ago, something I was not in agreement to, because the square pad had sunk to below grade on the north side and water could no longer run off, and would pool in large areas. It was made worse several years ago when the Parks Department decided to fill in a shallow depression that was actually drainage for the area, including a section of it that was filled with 3" plus rock that made what I think is called a French drain. I think it was all over making it easy to mow grass, but now the water has no where to go. Lots of times decisions are made without thinking about the long term, but you can not fight Mother Nature and it's best to try and work with her. If your center pad shows signs of sinking in the very near future, you guys might want to consider one of those companies that can shore up foundations by driving piers down to bedrock. It may take only one or two, but then the original one would be stabilized, and you could pour a new one about a foot or more bigger over that one, and back fill dirt up to it to remove any trip hazard. That all takes money, but in this day and age of Go-Fund-Me and such, and any other kind of financial begging you could do, it could be accomplished. And iot would be worth the effort and money because of all the other work you have already put into the site. It's just something to consider and think about as time marches on.
Getting back to the square pad, at the time it was brought up about putting on a 2" overlay, I offered up the idea of investing in better landscaping for better drainage and another , less expensive method of paving the pad. They went ahead with the 2" cap at an expense of some $14,000, and did a crappy job. It started to shed gravel right away and needed to be sealed before the first year was up. It has already started to show major cracking also and those need to be addressed. I hope to be actively flying for anywhere between 10 to 20 years, and we'll see what happens, again, as time marches on. So even with a nice paved pad, you can still run into problems if money isn't spent wisely.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee
Topic: Center pad (Read 2754 times)