I finally walked right up to fence it appears that tunnel is just where the covered stream traverses the site.
I wonder if thereās a reason for that? Also curious how the Phase 2 building may also be built to leave a gap where the stream aqueduct is? @dtraleighās diagram with the green line seems to align well with the concrete pad over the stream and how it heads north to Phase 1.
It seems to me that buildings are being constructed as to not have any part of the structure on the ground over the aqueduct. Check out Glenwood Towers and how thereās a gap in the building right over the aqueduct. The gap corresponds with the entrance to the parking deck on the other side of Glenwood.
The only inconsistency to this theory of mine is that the old building that used to be where the new Johnson St extension is currently going stretched completely across the aqueduct. Maybe it was constructed before this requirement that Iām completely making up?
I doubt the structure over the stream was constructed to support a 20-story building or even 5-story for that matter so any weight bearing load must be planted alongside and not over (my theory). Seems like a āfunā research project for someone to build a wiki about this creek aqueduct thing. 
(not it)
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Whatever the reason, itās prudent to build access for maintenance to the culvert.
I still wish the City would have encouraged/incentivized Kane to daylight this stream as part of the design.
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Me too. Very muchā¦
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Maybe Kane is leaving the window open to daylight portions of the creek in the future and that is why he isnāt building across the culvert??
Another thing to consider is that culverts can fail. Google the Newton Road incident last year for a dramatic example. I suspect itās built this way to ensure the building doesnāt fail if the culvert fails. But to be clear, Iām by no stretch a civil engineer! Iām making an educated guess.
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I wonder if you can daylight a small section of the creek and use pumps to bring the water up into a water feature that immediately returns it to the creek/culvert?
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The sad thing is that there really isnāt much flow thru the culvert, unfortunately.
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Just like any main water or sewer line, it needs to have an easement for repairs. Canāt get to it if its under any critical support structure. Glenwood Towers sort of straddles it as well.
They could have forced it I believe but theyād have had to bought it and there simply is not much money to do that with. Per the Nuese Buffer Rules it absolutely should be daylighted, buffered and BMPs installed at every influent point. And thatās not to mention that its a 303d impaired stream for fecal coliform (dog poop most likely) But this city doesnāt have strong feelings about stormwater treatmentā¦it dredges flood control ponds with money meant for stormwater treatment. It uses Federal money targeted for that to create buffers, when their real intent is to remove blight that just happens to be in flood prone buffer areas. It is yet another symptom of general lack of real progressive anything around here. We get muted versions of stuff only.
The problem with Pigeon House (like lots of places really) is the peaks. See for yourself. From 1 gallon per second to 100 in one big storm and thats just at Peace/Clark/Smallwood which is at just a tiny portion of the drained water shed. The estimated peak flows (there is no gauge so its extrapolated from Rocky Branchās data) at Dortch are almost 300 gps from down around 10 gps at low flow. The range at Smoky Hollow is probably 5-200 gps. Remember that during Fran in 1996 this creek washed out St Maryās street.
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@John how about a nice poop water fountain? 
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Nah, nah, nahā¦chocolate! 
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You can have that present in streams that look nice and clearā¦thats why you should never trust a mountain stream. Turbidity gives it the poop look.
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The rezoning case for phase 3 hits the Growth and Natural Resources Committee on Wed May 29 at 4pm.
http://go.boarddocs.com/nc/raleigh/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=BCFM5P568E06
The committee consists of:
Members: Kay Crowder - Chair, David Cox, Russ Stephenson, Dickie Thompson, Stef Mendell
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Who wants to hit the committee meeting before the reader meetup at 5:30?
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