But how would that impact the houses to the east? Doubt that the city would OK this too easily.
Just purely guessing, I'm doubting a whole lot depending on if they let the parking lots continue to flood. The water displacement created by the Beach-Lincoln Way-University Boulevard-Center Street rectangle spread over Coldwater/parking lots/intramural fields/the park/etc. I'm guessing would have a minimal effect. That's a HUGE land area.
Just purely guessing, I'm doubting a whole lot depending on if they let the parking lots continue to flood. The water displacement created by the Beach-Lincoln Way-University Boulevard-Center Street rectangle spread over Coldwater/parking lots/intramural fields/the park/etc. I'm guessing would have a minimal effect. That's a HUGE land area.
Just lower the parking lot and let more flood water into that then.
The best thing to protect Hilton would to add a berm that started up by MWL running down the south side of Lincoln Way, and over along the west side of University to Center Street. Than engineer something that closes off the two pedestrian walk ways under Center Street leading to Hilton.
BAM, problem solved!
Last edited by chuckd4735; 08-20-2010 at 11:46 AM.
At first, I liked the idea of building a levee around Hilton (actually around the Iowa State Center). However, it has to be done well.
Because there is already a levee! The road south of Hilton acts like a levee and may have been part of the problem. I went to Hilton on Tuesday morning during the worst of the flooding. And I went past the barricades right up to where the road behind Hilton was covered. I noticed a huge burst of water coming out from under one of the overpasses. It looked like there was a huge pump under the road that was pumping water into the parking lot. You could see the water flow go for more than 100 feet.
Upon further inspection, there was no pump. It was just the result of having so much water pressure on the Hilton/Scheman side of the road! The water was just shooting out of the pedestrian tunnel under the road behind Hilton into the big parking lot.
Thus, I wonder if the flooding would have been as bad if the road/levee behind Hilton hadn't been there and the water could have flowed more freely and quickly into the big parking lots.
Perhaps it was actually the levee that caused the water to get so high around Hilton and Scheman! Perhaps if the water could have flowed more freely and quickly to lower/wider areas, it might not have accumulated so high and done so much damage to Hilton and Scheman.
I'm not an expert, but this seems to be a variable that needs to be considered.
Build a resevoir north of Ames like Saylovrville. Let Gilbert get flooded...
Then we could start a womens rowing team and bring back ISU baseball and still be in compliance with Title IX! (j/k)
There actually was an Ames Reservoir on the Skunk River north of Ames in the Corps of Engineers' plans back in the late '60s and preliminary environmental studies were carried out, but it never went farther than that. It wouldn't have helped much with Squaw Creek though.
At first, I liked the idea of building a levee around Hilton (actually around the Iowa State Center). However, it has to be done well.
Because there is already a levee! The road south of Hilton acts like a levee and may have been part of the problem. I went to Hilton on Tuesday morning during the worst of the flooding. And I went past the barricades right up to where the road behind Hilton was covered. I noticed a huge burst of water coming out from under one of the overpasses. It looked like there was a huge pump under the road that was pumping water into the parking lot. You could see the water flow go for more than 100 feet.
Upon further inspection, there was no pump. It was just the result of having so much water pressure on the Hilton/Scheman side of the road! The water was just shooting out of the pedestrian tunnel under the road behind Hilton into the big parking lot.
Thus, I wonder if the flooding would have been as bad if the road/levee behind Hilton hadn't been there and the water could have flowed more freely and quickly into the big parking lots.
Perhaps it was actually the levee that caused the water to get so high around Hilton and Scheman! Perhaps if the water could have flowed more freely and quickly to lower/wider areas, it might not have accumulated so high and done so much damage to Hilton and Scheman.
I'm not an expert, but this seems to be a variable that needs to be considered.
If no water gets over there in the first place, there's no issue. The issue comes about when the parking lots get water in them, Hilton is below that (tunnel is downhill under Center Street). Water was over both Lincoln Way and University Boulevard, and coming in from the tunnels. You can eliminate the majority of that if you raise University Boulevard. That will prevent Lied/Soccer Complex/MWL intramural fields from taking on any outside water from Squaw and well as Hilton/Scheman. The only other issue would be making sure they can seal off the pedestrian tunnels, which should be ridiculously easy.
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Originally Posted by cigaretteman 
(j/k)
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