Columbiaarchives.Org Water Is Gushing Through Sluice Gate at Downstream Side of Wilde Lake Dam
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WINTER 1967 A ROUSE COMPANY PUBLICATION W INTER 1967 In this issue Page 3 / Wilde Lake’s timing proved perfect. Construction of dam completed in less than three months. Wilde Lake and downtown lake (see photo, left) nearly filled to capacity Page 6 / Symphony pavilion named to honor Mrs. Merriweather Post. Dedication date planned for July, 1967, with Van Cliburn as guest soloist Page 7 / Giant Foods, others leasing at fast pace.The Village of Wilde Lake’s shopping-center construction begins, leases are signed Page 8 / Building construction news. Garden and midrise apartments, exhibition building, general industrial building, and all-weather pool now in the building stage Page 10 / Things are happening in the Howard County school system. Interview with the Board of Education Page 12 / Consultants recommend new school programs.A review of the Alexander-Anderson report Aon Guide to Schools in Howard County Pages 14 & 15 / News briefs. Golf pro selected for Hobbit’s Glen TV reception in Columbia surveyed and found adequate Columbia’s first post office opened Utility installations under way ColumbiaArchives.org Water is gushing through sluice gate at downstream side of Wilde Lake dam. To the southeast, riprap has been mixed with concrete to maintain the embankment. (COQ-QJfM&ESDZft Volume 1 Number 4 A quarterly published by The Rouse Company, The Village of Cross Keys, Baltimore, Maryland 21210. Please send notification of change of address to the attention of the Information Department. The Columbia quarterly is available upon request ColumbiaArchives.org ■3 Two man-made lakes completed Unique planning, simple design enhance Wilde Lake dam In June of 1966, the site for Wilde Lake was a low-lying vale covered with rough grass and a few trees. The 22 acres of land set aside for Columbia’s first lake had from time immemorial been a stream bed, although never marshy. The tiny stream emanated from the drainage for 1,280 acres of ground, plus a number of subterranean springs, northwest of the lakesite where the Bryant Woods neighborhood center will stand. Until July 26 of that past hot and notoriously rainfree summer, one could have driven the Columbia construction roads and not have received the slightest indication that part of the stream valley was about to be transformed into a lake. But less than three months later, with the completion of Wilde Lake’s dam, a lake had been created. The dam, a massive, concrete gravity structure, was constructed across a tributary one-half mile upstream from where it flows into the Little Patuxent River. Chief engineering consultant was Jerome B. Wolff, with Robert B. Balter & Associates in charge of soil engineering. Tippetts - Abbett - McCarthy - Stratton Summer night construction work on Wilde Lake dam (TAMS), New York-based architects and engineers, were called upon to assist in the designing of the structure. The result was a 200-foot-wide, 27-foot-high, 4,600-cubic-yard concrete gravity dam with a 32-foot-thick base. Because of the long drought, stream flow was extraordinarily low. This allowed the downstream passage of water to be accomplished across the damsite by merely passing it through a temporary four-foot diameter pipe, thereby circumventing the usual and more costly method of excavating a temporary diversion channel around the site. Construction then proceeded at an accelerated pace, night and day, seven days a week, in the anticipation of fall rains. The decision to work on a crash basis later proved prophetically prudent: exceptionally intense rainfalls began shortly after completion of the last pour. Vernon Robbins, of The Rouse Company, supervised the making of the 46 separate pours needed to complete the dam. R. Yilmaz Kuranel, of TAMS, was on the project site during the entire construction period to advise and inspect.Wilde Lake dam upon completion last fall ColumbiaArchives.org On October 21, with completion of the last pour, the dam began to impound water and Wilde Lake became a reality. In planning the lake bottom, the engineers decided to make use of the rich clay found nearby rather than lining the surface with the customary grout curtain. The impervious clay blanket, which eliminates seepage under the dam and below-surface erosion, is ten feet in depth at the upstream dam face tapering 350 feet upstream to a two-foot thickness. Eight-foot-wide riprap stabilizes the stream bed and bank at the dam outlet. As water enters the extreme upper regions of the lake its flow is slowed by a 25-foot-deep silting basin. This is upstream of the clay bottom and causes most suspended matter to sediment out. A discharge penstock, or sluice gate, of two-inch-diameter cast-iron pipe, is embedded in the dam to control the water level of the lake. As water flows over the dam or through the sluice gate and downstream, its kinetic energy is dissipated in a stilling basin on the downstream side. Northwest section of Wilde Lake before construction had started. In the distance (left) This stilling basin is to prevent is the restored Keller barn; an old horse shed (right) has been restored and will be a downstream erosion. boathouse. Nearby is Columbia’s first (temporary) Post Office. Unique design As one rides or walks up Oakland Mill Road approaching Wilde Lake and the downstream side of the dam, the face — made up of four steps — has a textured, tactile value. When the five-foot lifts of concrete were poured in place, the forms were lined in a concave fashion with five-foot-long slabs of bark cut from logs of indigenous trees removed from the lake bed. Before nailing the vertical slabs in the forms, the bark was sprayed with oil Preparation for pour in midsection Sluice placed early in construction to facilitate their removal upon the hardening of the concrete. The concept of Morton Hoppenfeld, chief planner for the new city of Columbia, the textured finish is the more striking because of the use of a light, buff-colored concrete. Also designed by Hoppenfeld is an adjustable fountain at the center of the dam. Three spigots have been placed in the concrete on the first three tiers on the downstream side of the dam. Controlled by a pumphouse on the north side, they will shoot water vertically up and over the face of the dam. Wilde Lake’s spillage converts into a stream which flows eastward approximately one-half mile and into Columbia’s downtown lake, also completed last fall. Work road, later dredged, in use during construction of downtown lake ColumbiaArchives.org ---------5 Downtown lake for boating and beauty A mile and one half south of Route 108was driven at the downstream end to form later use, and 70,000 cubic yards of rich and just west of the Columbia Pike a spillway dike. topsoil was stockpiled in three mounds to existed, until last fall, a natural flood plain During the excavation work last be used for landscaping throughout of the Little Patuxent River. Lying 300 summer, a temporary work road was located Columbia. feet above sea level (Wilde Lake, when toward the center of the 32-acre lakesite As the lake neared completion in October, filled to capacity, is 335 feet above sea in order to drive the earth-moving equipment riprap (stones weighing between 50 level), the basin was a perfect site for a (bulldozers, scrapers, trucks) from and 150 pounds) was placed along the lake on the western edge of downtownone side of the lake to the other. Two shore line not only to prevent erosion but Columbia. Engineers Consoer, Townsendislands were made, one to preserve fouralso to give the lake a neat appearance. pin oak trees. The work road was removed with a drag & Associates, retained by The Rouse line, and the lake is now filling up to Company, drew up plans for a grading reach capacity early in the spring. operation to occur in conjunction with Beforethe excavation of the downtown lake, The Gilbane Building Company of building of Wilde Lake dam. After an a grove of deciduous trees existed on theProvidence, Rhode Island, was the general excavation of five feet a natural gravelsite. Those worthy of saving were contractor for the work on both Wilde bottom was discovered, and sheetpiling transplanted in another area of Columbia forLake and the downtown lake. The 32-acre lake for downtown Columbia has a wooden pier plus ramp for launching boats and canoes ColumbiaArchives.org 6 Symphony pavilion named to honor Mrs. Merriweather Post; exciting season scheduled Onstage at Constitution Hall was the right, the fan-shaped seating area will on the acoustical renovation of the New mid-November setting for the unveilinghave two lengthwise aisles and continentalYork State Theater at Lincoln Center for of the revised model of the Merriweather seating. A 35,000-square-foot roof the New York City Opera Company and Post Pavilion of Music. Along with herwill overhang the stage and seating area, the Delacorte Theater for the New York fellow directors, Mrs. Merriweather Post, and will be constructed of exposed steel. Shakespeare Festival, Jaffe is also working vice president of the Washington NationalThe 40- by 60-foot stage will be as musical consultant on the summer Symphony, had her first glimpse of the surrounded by an acoustical shell hung fromhome of the Cleveland Orchestra. model for Columbia’s summer festival of the ceiling and adjustable so that the Gala concert slated for dedication house can be tuned for each performance. music. Two months prior to the meeting Howard Mitchell will conduct the Also included in the Merriweather Post in Washington, James W. Rouse’s National Symphony opening night, July 14, Pavilion is an orchestra pit large enough proposal for naming the pavilion in honor of 1967, with Van Cliburn as guest soloist.