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Town engineer outlines $997,000 plan to protect South Walker Road from severe erosion
Summary
A Del Underground consultant told the Coopertown board that steep upstream grades and a narrowed ditch are accelerating erosion on South Walker Road; temporary rock buttresses ($4,200 materials) and a proposed $997,000 permanent realignment and riprap plan were presented, with design costs of about $133,000.
A town engineer, serving as a consultant for Del Underground, told the Coopertown board that a steep upstream grade and a constricted ditch are causing high flow velocities that have eroded a 5‑foot gully and are undermining the roadbed on South Walker Road. He said the ditch appears to function as an overflow relief for a Hollis Creek tributary and that the problem is most visible after heavy rain events.
“The temporary fixes are not to address the overall global issues… but rather to protect the integrity of the pavement structure for these three specific areas,” the town engineer said, describing a rock buttress to stabilize the deep gully and rock check dams to shore up undermined shoulders.
The engineer gave preliminary cost figures: materials for the temporary measures are about $4,200, with an optional $2,000 fee if Del Underground provides construction oversight. For a permanent fix — realigning the ditch away from the north shoulder, increasing cross‑sectional area, and installing Class C riprap — he estimated 2025 construction costs at approximately $997,000, plus about $133,000 for design and hydraulic/hydrology (H&H) professional services and an optional $15,000 for limited construction administration.
Board members pressed the engineer on right‑of‑way and relocation distance. The consultant said relocating the ditch about 10 feet would create a roughly 3:1 slope and provide two to four feet of additional shoulder; he noted that exact limits will require a survey. He also highlighted that a portion of the ditch has tension cracking in the pavement above, a sign of substructure instability.
The engineer recommended addressing the most critical erosion points immediately as temporary measures and then conducting a focused H&H study to refine the permanent design and limits. He said the temporary rock buttress could be incorporated into the permanent work.
Next steps: the board requested survey and cost details to inform budgeting and to consider phasing the work. No formal vote on funding for the project appears in the transcript.
