Gateway Park's Boarded Up Boardwalks Are Not Being Torn Apart By The Flood

Yesterday on my way to Town Talk, after walking with the turtles who live in Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park, I took a detour into Gateway Park to get a look at the flooding Trinity River as it passes one of Gateway Park's boarded up boardwalks.

Where this Gateway Park boardwalk is located the Trinity River is in its natural state.

No levees.

At this point the river has carved itself a bit of a canyon, with the river narrow and running fast, with rapids at this location.

Upon arrival I was surprised to see part of the boarded up boardwalk deconstructed and piled up near the parking lot.

That is that pile you see below.

In  the picture above you are looking at a stairway that used to be boarded up, but now there is nothing blocking one from walking straight down the stairs and into the flooding Trinity River. Not long ago a teenager drowned at this location at a time when the Trinity River was in drought mode.

Since what one could see of the boarded up boardwalk was all intact I assume the debris you see above came from the part of the boardwalk that is now under water. I suspect the deconstruction process was underway when the flood hit.

The Trinity River Center City Panther Island Vision Boondoggle is, supposedly, building two new river overlooks. I assume that is why the boarded up boardwalk is being deconstructed.

I also assume that the new boardwalk overlooks are going to be built above where the river floods, so as to prevent what happened to the current boarded up boardwalks.

But, with America's Biggest Boondoggle one can never assume common sense will prevail....