Friday, May 2, 2008

London Ave. Canal Floodgate



London Avenue Hurricane Protection Gate- Lakeside

So I find myself out by UNO with some time to kill, so I decided to take a stroll. I walked around the London Avenue Floodgate and took a few photos that I want to share.

Canal side
In general, I was pretty impressed by the civil/structural side of the structure. Seems like that civil engineer wasn't fucking around when he designed the members that support the gate, especially the supports on the canal side of the structure.

MWI pumps with booms (orange strip at bottom)

I did see one thing that had me worried. The MWI pumps (the original ones that were subject of so much controversy are still surrounded by booms. Not only are there 2 big booms across the inlet and outlet of the canal, but each MWI pump has it's own boom surrounding it. This suggests that either the MWI pumps are STILL leaking hydraulic fluid or the operators are less that fully confident about them.


Boom on canal side of gate

In fact, I might have noticed an oil slick near one of the booms. It was a very bright day, so I can't be 100% without taking a boat to the middle of the canal, but I think I observed an oil slick caught in the apex of the curve of the boom.

New Pumps

The new pumps look like everything is in order and lined up how it should be. The new pumps are made by one of the largest, most reputable pump companies (Gorman Rupp? Milton Roy? Anyone help my memory? I forget which off the top of my head).

You can check out the rest of the photos here. I've added a few notes, too.

1 comment:

mcbrid35 said...

The London Ave direct drives came from Patterson Pump, owned by Gorman-Rupp.

Here's their victory lap press release:

http://www.gormanrupp.com/news/londonave.pdf

Matt