New Look Coming - 1-270 North
Keep your eye on the Charter Communications building on I-270 North because there will soon be something spectacular to view there!
Brookside has a project in progress for Charter. It is a waterfall project on one of the most visible sites in the St. Louis area.
The site was home to a fountain and waterfall about a decade ago, but in recent years the waterfall had become inoperable. Basically, it had eroded and fallen in. Consequently, Brookside bid on a removal and design/build for a new waterfall on the site, and was given the go ahead on it near the end of 2013.
If you drive by I-270 North with any regularity, I’m sure you have noticed the site before. It is the perfect site for a cascading waterfall, as the landscape provides a nice gradual slope, with a perfect angle to the highway and plenty of visibility. We, at Brookside, have always appreciated the natural landscape and the possibilities of the Charter site, and were excited for the opportunity to work with it.
As I said, the project is currently in progress and thus far we are pleased with the results. Of course we had to postpone things a bit for the weather, but that is to be expected this time of year. Otherwise, it has been a smooth operation for us.
We started the project by removing the existing sandstone boulders, some of which were quite huge, and placing them in a very large pile. And as we build we are using some of the sandstone from the pile while also supplementing with new sandstone boulders we have brought in.
The original waterfall flowed into a large retention basin, but the basin leaked. Therefore, we built a damn between the waterfall and retention pond, and are building a small basin at the base of the waterfall to use as a reservoir for our new system. We are also removing and replacing the existing bridge.
The waterfall system we are putting in will have a 12.5 horse pump that will provide 815 gallons of water per minute. In fact, the system will move the same amount of water as in a normal residential swimming pool in about 50 minutes.
The waterfall feature will have four different falls, with a lot of action that will be very visible from the highway. It will have 12-15 ft. wide weirs, and an elevation of 15-18 ft. from top to bottom. Some of the drops are 3 ft., and one is 7-8 ft.
We are excited to see this project completed, as we can imagine what the view will be from the highway. We will definitely post new pictures at that time. In the meantime, keep your eye out on I-270 North. It won’t be long before the new waterfall is up and running!