Los Angeles River Banks To Be Raised For El Nino

[Purveyor]

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin work next week to temporarily raise the banks along nearly three miles of the Los Angeles River to improve flood protection during El Nino storms, officials announced Friday, just days after the watercourse roared to life during heavy rains.

Temporary barriers to be put in place with $3.1 million in emergency federal funding will increase the river's capacity north of downtown in a stretch that spans the east side of Griffith Park to Elysian Valley paralleling Interstate 5.

The barriers are something like giant sandbags - fabric containers with a wire mesh structure that are filled with earth. Lt. Col. Kirk Gibbs, Los Angeles district commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the barriers would arrive in the city on Saturday.

About $500,000 in additional funding will be used for work farther upstream to remove vegetation that impedes the flow of water.

The Los Angeles River runs 51 miles from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach Harbor.

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[hunter]

1. It was a bad idea to squeeze the river there with a major interstate highway...

... and suburban housing developments.

That's the trouble with this sort of engineering. Once you start, you can't stop.

[FLPanhandle]

2. Is a concrete drainage ditch really a river anymore?

I've seen pictures way back of people canoeing the original river with trees along the banks.

A concrete drainage ditch isn't a real river.