The vegetation-choked channel of Thornton Creek at Meadowbrook will be widened and meanders will be created in the Summer 2014 construction period.
On Tuesday, May 13 from 5:30 to 6:30 PM there will be a Drop-In Information Meeting about the upcoming work in Meadowbrook which will close 35th Ave NE between NE 105th to 110th Streets for the next several months. At about NE 107th Street, the South Fork of Thornton Creek passes through a culvert under the road. This summer new, much larger culverts will be put in and this major, digging-up project is the reason for the road closure. On both sides of 35th Ave NE at NE 107th, the creekbed will be widened including the creation of meanders and a floodplain.
The Confluence is the area along 35th Ave NE between NE 107th to 115th Streets where the North and South Forks of Thornton Creek converge. The Confluence is a relatively flat area and with steady urban growth, the surrounding streets have often been flooded. In the past two years work has been done to enlarge the capacity of Meadowbrook Pond. In this third year of projects, construction is being done to enlarge the creek bed and replace the culverts with bigger ones for more capacity. The roadway will be dug up at NE 107th Street and therefore 35th Ave NE will be closed at that point for the entire summer. Transit and traffic will be routed over to Lake City Way NE along NE 95th and 110th Streets.
Some trees along 35th Ave NE are tagged for removal during the Confluence Construction project.
The first work to be done will be tree-cutting to create space for the construction along 35th Ave NE. Just north of the entrance of Meadowbrook Community Center, trees have been tagged green (for preservation) or yellow (for cut-down.) To the west of 35th Ave NE, at least sixteen of the poplar trees along the creek will be removed so that the creek bed can be widened and meanders created.
The Drop-In Meeting will start at 5:30 PM on Tuesday, May 13, at the Meadowbrook Community Center, 10517 35th Ave NE, in the conference room immediately to the left of the front door. At 6:30 PM the Meadowbrook Community Council meeting will begin. Agenda items, in addition to the creek work, will be the new police liaison person, and info from SDOT on sidewalk projects.