The Thurston canal looked like this between Second and Third avenues on Sunday, May 7.
Hardly any water flows in the little ditch known as the Thurston Street Canal or “Thurston Creek” in the best of times. On Sunday I was surprised to see that one section had gone completely dry.
Nearby, a contractor had stored tons of water pipe and related equipment. Was this a sign that the rest of the little canal’s flow would now be put underground, as was done in the 1980s?
No, Albany Public Works Director Chris Bailey assured me, the pipe and equipment stored on Thurston near First Avenue had nothing to do with the canal. The material was there in preparation for replacing a water line below First and Jefferson Street.
So how come the canal was dry in that section, and had only a few stagnant puddles farther upstream?
Kristin Preston, who heads the operations branch of the city’s public works department, looked for an answer.
There is, she told me, a gate valve where the Eighth Avenue Canal flows into the Thurston ditch. The gate valve can get plugged with debris and block the flow.
“Thick vegetation in the ditch can also impede flow,” she added. “One or a combination of those has likely caused less flow showing up here. Maintenance crews will inspect and clear any blockage and clear vegetation, as needed.”
This morning (Thursday, May 11), she had found the actual cause.
“I learned yesterday that the gate valve was closed by someone (not a City worker) so we opened it back up and adjusted the level in the 8th street canal so that more flow would get through to the Thurston ditch,” she reported in an email. “It should have more flow now.”
In the 1980s, the City of Albany had a contractor build a big storm sewer 20 feet below Thurston Street. When neighbors complained about losing the historic canal on the surface, the city agreed to replace it with the concrete ditch that exists there now.
Also about 40 years ago, the city landscaped the street on both sides of the canal as a kind of parkway. Like the canal itself, that idea has been largely forgotten. Parts of the travel lanes are now used for parking.
The CARA urban renewal program included a proposal to improve these blocks of Thurston Street and the canal and turn them into an urban amenity. It was one of the proposals in the 2001 plan that was left in the dust. (hh)
North of Sixth Avenue, the Thurston ditch had a little standing water on Monday, May 8.
It was left in the dust because TIF requires value capture, i.e., the subsidized project will generate more property tax than what would otherwise have happened with no improvement.
Like building a kiddie splash pad and a new stage, all on city land.
Err…uh…on second thought, bad example.
I’m certain there are good examples but CARA rarely communicates a project’s guesstimated return on investment.
I wonder what the increment would have been by improving this ditch? I suppose we first need to be informed about the economics of drainage.
Hasso, you are out and about on your bike and got the Thurston canal going again, since the city was unaware…as usual. You get more problems brought into the light of day than the Council/CARA (which are peopled by the same people).
I find it difficult to believe CARA ever had any intent on spending money this far away from City Hall.
Would be nice to have it opened all the way to the river. It might enhance the neighbor hood a bit. Instead of having the grassy mud patch of weeds that it becomes between first and second when people use it during the wet season to chuck their garbage from the bars and the convenience store, use it to turn around creating mud holes and aweed patch for dog excrement.
The Thurston canal at one time provided the hydropower for the Red Crown Mill located at the north end of Thurston. The Red Crown Mill was destroyed by a fire.
The water should be left where it belongs and not diverted to any of these canals.