Due to the Austin floods in 2017, an embankment failure along Shoal Creek presented risk to property owners and to a City of Austin utility power pole. This project was viewed as an emergency repair and was on a tight schedule and budget.
Aguirre & Fields provided structural design, bid, and construction support for the repair of the embankment failure at the east bank of Shoal Creek, upstream of White Rock Drive. The flood control project was constructed in the late 1980s and the banks of the creek were sloped and stabilized with concrete riprap which was faced with limestone blocks for aesthetics. The failure occurred along a bend in the channel where the wall experienced toe scour. The scour at the toe walls caused a portion of the concrete slab to fail allowing material to be eroded from behind the revetment.
Aguirre & Fields developed an innovative solution to inject low-strength concrete flowable fill behind the header slope to fill in the scour void and minimize the portion of the existing wall that needed to be saw cut and removed. This allowed for a quick repair to be made without the need for further demolition or temporary shoring.
