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project and I think John Starr took pity on me after a couple of weeks, or he
realized that this was just my indoctrination, and then he moved me into
another unit. The squad leader there was named Ken Gardner. But I really did
start then to do some design and drafting of small structures-the small
structures being things like headwalls and manholes and other minor facilities
where you did have to know about reinforcing steel and things like that.
However, there was no real major design. One of the projects I worked on that
I guess the Corps of Engineers would probably just as soon I forget about was
a project called
Creek Pressure Conduit and Outlet Works.
This was part of the project for Susquehanna River flood control. They were
designing for a hundred-year flood on the Susquehanna River. Somebody else
was doing the hydrology. We were not. We were just doing the design after
somebody else had decided what to do.
Right across the river from Wilkes-Barre are two small towns, Kingston and
Edwardsville, that ran together. I think it's right near the line between those
that
Creek came down out of the mountains and crossed the flood plain
and discharged into the Susquehanna River. It's a right mountainous area with
a narrow flood plain, and, of course, the big flood plain is on the Wilkes-Barre
side where the city is. On the Kingston-Edwardsville side the narrow flood
plain was subject to flooding when the river came up, just as Wilkes-Barre was
on the other side.
The idea of the
Creek Pressure Conduit and Outlet Works was to take
this stream that came down out of the mountains and back it up in an
impounding basin to create enough head to force the water through a pressure
conduit and out into the river through a
on the river bank with a
floodgate, so that when the river was up, the water would come out, and it
would be forced out because of the head from the impoundment but the
floodgate would prevent the river flood water from coming in. The impounding
basin was merely earth levees in a U shape to hold the water and give it enough
head to send it out through this conduit, which was maybe a half-mile long,
under pressure. It went right down to the river near the border between
Kingston and Edwardsville.
I designed the headwalls and several other minor structures for the
Creek
project, I can't remember the details of what I did. At one time, I did a whole
job which was the biggest job I did-including the design and the drafting in
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