Erosion Threatens D’Olive Creek Culvert

By Debbie Williams Reporter

Published: Wed, September 10, 2008 - 9:49 pm

Short URL: http://wkrg.com/a/17837/

Debbie Williams

Running below I-10 between Malbis and Daphne, you'll find a massive culvert that funnels D'Olive Creek underneath the interstate and into Lake Forest.
Water and lots of it, flows underneath Interstate 10 every day through the D'olive Creek culvert. Time and all that water has caused a problem according to Mark Rice who is helping fix the problem. "It's not on a regular basis you have to do this. This culvert has just been here for years."
Truck loads of rocks and dirt are being hauled in according to Rice. "We are putting a filter fabric in the bottom of the ditch so it'll hold in all the solids, such as dirt, and let the water feed through the rocks and will actually disperse the water where it won't erode the ground so bad."
That erosion has already started taking a toll along the creek bank. Water has washed the dirt from the root system of many of the trees but the repairs that are underway should stop that. "Anytime you have that amount of water coming through, it's going to produce some erosion damage on down the stream so this is the necessary precaution that needs to be taken to stop it from further damaging anything else."
Department of Transportation officials say a wetter than normal summer along with a couple of tropical systems has caused the erosion to accelerate.
The project should take a couple of days to complete.
Traffic along Interstate 10 will not be interrupted but motorists do need to slow down and watch for workers and trucks entering the highway.