Mitigation of hazardous road embankments: LEBOW CREEK natural stream design at 28th Street
Fort Worth
Merit Award
Sent by: Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam Inc. (LAN)
OWNER City of Fort Worth
DESIGN/CIVIL/STRUCTURAL MANAGER Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam Inc.
GENERAL CONTRACTOR Humphrey & Morton Construction Co.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Pacheco Koch (now Westwood)
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING HVJ North Texas – Chelliah Consultants Inc.
SURVEY Spooner and Associates Inc.
The Lebow Canal is an urban stream that has drained floodwaters from neighborhoods dating back to the 1960s, but has suffered prolonged erosion due to numerous floods. Repeated roadway flooding and channel erosion posed safety risks, prompting multiple high-water rescues on the 28th Street Bridge and nearby railroad underpass.
As part of the Hazardous Road Overtopping Mitigation program, the project team set out to install this $5 million set of improvements at 28th Street and Decatur Avenue, focusing on improving 1,500 linear feet of the Lebow Channel around the NE 28th Street Bridge.
Primary goals included conveying runoff from a 100-year storm under 28th Street, reducing the depth of water over the roadway during storm events, and providing additional flood storage for severe storms. To do this, crews installed level control structures and rock blast shields upstream and downstream of the bridge to counteract the increased water velocity. The design included sloping the channel to reduce the risk of flooding, creating a low-flow meandering channel, and planting native trees and vegetation to restore the riparian zone.
