Heavy rainfall, snow gives Rocky Creek culvert its first big test ​

A melting snowpack and heavy rainfall last week forced Rocky Creek to quickly rise and gave the new  4^th Avenue culvert its first big test - one that Town staff monitored closely, crediting success to the professional engineering and planning that went into the project.

The Rocky Creek culvert was designed for a once in a 200 year storm event and has the capacity to channel large volumes of water when inclement weather strikes.

Since the beginning of January,  over 250 mm of rain have been recorded at the Public Works Yard and 96 mm of that came last week alone.

Town crews monitored the new culvert and determined it was performing well given the combination of melting snow at elevation, rainfall and long duration of the precipitation. 

Even at more than double the size of the previous culvert, the high stream (shown in a picture from last week) approached the level of a 200 year storm event as it flowed through the pipe underneath 4^th Avenue.

In addition to the increased capacity, the culvert can also support large pieces of debris such as fallen branches that may flow downstream and impact the course of the stream channel at these points.   

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