The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1919-05-12
MORE ABOUT THE BAYOU
WATER WALK
lBY ]. c. Beekman.l

Before 1t is decided what form OF
construction to adopt in the rebuild
ing of tie bayou water walk and per-
haps some extension of same, | wish
to say something in re 2r1 to a., e.,
ditions to be met in constructing such
walk and its maintorance.
Ever since I h2v. lived :: - p
Springs / have taken especial notice
of this bayou walk, observed the diff
ferent methods of new construction
and repair, and done considerable of it
myself. HAVING maintained for sovor"I
years over 1000 feet of board walk
along and over the water around our
bayou property. When I planned the
development work here and before l
sold that Is acres south of our point
to the Welsh Development company, |
went all along the front where | plan
ned the bulkhead to hold the filling
and sounded the ground along the
margin of the marsh grass or shore to
determine the nature of the holding
for the bulkhead. | found by sound
ing with an iron rod that the ground
was soft for from feet to Is feet;
too soft to build a bulllhead, to hold
such filing, in the ordinary way
which was by large posts driven down
on the outside of overlapping boards
and then braced from piling at 10
foot intervals, also outside in the wa,
ter. So. ] invented q bA6head of bug
one thickness of two-inc1i boards driv-
en- down as far as possible and then
with a strapping of 8-inch boards 1-2
inches thick on top and bottom of out
side of bulkhead, anchored by means
Of heavy wire to saw logs in the
ground 20 feet inside of the bulkhead.
This bulkhead did not meet with the
approval of the dredging contractors
at the start and | had to agree to
stand for all losses that might occur
from the bullhead not holding; for it
appeared too light, costing about one
third as much as the ordinary bulk
head specified for such filling. The
dredgerS seemed to try to break it
down. filing from the front to rear in
stead of to the rear first, and the
pressure was enormous. The bulk
head held in it's entirety, but in two
or three places the bottom of the bulk
head was pushed out few inches,
though the planks were driven into
the ground for several feet.
The point l wish to make here is, of
course, evident: that the shore line is
generally quite soft sand or mud COW
cred for few inches with sand; SO
soft that solid row of planking diiv-
en- several feet deep, were pushed out
several inches for a stretch of from
20 to 30 feet here and there proving
that an ordinarily constructed bulk
head would not have held at all.
Also the depth is uneven to a solid
holding or foundation-in some places
3 OF i feet and in others as much as
Is feet. This is the reason the solid
walk has always undermined; because
the draw of the water at low tides
draws the higher water from rains and
seepage down beneath the wall to the
low water level and takes the earth
and sand with it.
A single back or retaining wall of
can be built on piling with
jutting braces, and drained by tile
protected on the inside with rock fill
ters. The piling on which a board
walk could be built, would be driven
down to a solid base, and sawed off
to proper height, covered with tile
which could be filled with sand and
the top sealed with cement.
A row of lights could line the retain
ing wall, which if carried out and ex-
tended as the bayous built up, would
make the most attractive and unrival-
I'd water promenade in the state, if
not in the South, and a delight to ev-
ary citizen of Tarpon Springs. This
would not be expensive |
md the maintenance in good condi- |
.on would be insignificant.