A long line of plastic barriers has appeared on the north riverbank as it snakes through the Logan River Golf Course.
It’s a product called Muscle Wall and is expected to ease flooding worries as spring runoff have created flood watch conditions.
Logan Parks and Recreation Director Russ Akina said the city purchased 600 wall segments about two weeks ago for just under $350,000. Akina said he feels confident that the Muscle Wall will prevent flooding along the golf course like Logan saw in 2011.
The plastic, 6-foot-long wall segments — some 2 feet tall and some 4 feet tall — are hollow. Two people can easily lift a segment and drop the interlocking pivots into place, creating a continuous barrier. Then, they are filled with water and a tarp is draped over the top to prevent erosion underneath the Muscle Wall.
Akina said city engineers have surveyed the Logan River and identified areas with low riverbanks, where water is dangerously close to overflowing. Based on reports from the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City, Akina said they are taking measures to prevent flooding.
“We’re trying to stay ahead of the anticipated runoff to protect areas, whether that is residential property or city property, including the golf course,” Akina said.
In 2011, large sections of the Logan River Golf Course were underwater. Roughly three weeks ago, Akina said, a section of the riverbank that failed in 2011 was six inches from flooding the bank. That encouraged Logan to look into options besides sandbags. He said approximately 300 sandbags would be needed for each segment of Muscle Wall, meaning somewhere in the tens of thousands would be needed along the river.
“That’s a lot of sandbags, so as an alternative to that, we decided to go with this Muscle Wall in place of that,” Akina said.
Muscle Walls are easier to install and can be reused year after year, while sandbags are heavy, labor-intensive and don’t last more than one season.
“It’s much faster and more efficient for us to be able to move sections of wall, store them and then have them back ready to use when we have to do this again,” Akina said.
Large sections of the wall were installed Saturday, and workers filled in other sections Monday. Akina said they are waiting for tarp anchors to be delivered, but as soon as they arrive the tarps will be set up and the Muscle Wall will stand ready.
Along a residential section of the river, in the Sumac area, Public Works Director Mark Nielsen said city employees will place sandbags Monday night where houses back up to the Logan River. The river is running high and fast, but cooler temperatures are expected to bring some relief.
“The river thus far has behaved very well,” Nielsen said. “It’s hot for a while, then it cools down, and that’s a great help to us to keep it where it should be.”