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Six-mile stretch of Mesa canal has concrete replaced
Gates closed on a Mesa canal and the water slowly turned into a trickle until it dried out.
That's when the fun starts.
Heavy machines tear through the concrete that has been holding in water for half a century.
Canals are the life of Phoenix as they're the main water source for much of the Valley. The water they hold in the desert is important.
"We don't want to lose any of it into the ground," Justin Schonhoff of the Salt River Project said.
That's why, he says, a six-mile stretch in Mesa is now dry.
"1960 is when this was last done, so it's time, it's due. Overtime, the canal concrete gets thin and starts to break from movement of the earth and that kind of stuff. Storms. We do get some storm damage," Schonhoff said.
Once the water slows, a team of 30 jump in knee-deep.
"Yeah, we gotta move SRPs smallest employees," Schonhoff said of algae-eating fish.
The fish are coraled with nets, lifted by a crane and moved elsewhere. Then skid steers move the silt, the muck, the mud, and dodge the debris.
"Guys are down there walking. There are things submerged. They don't want to trip over them, hurt themselves, so it's a big safety aspect," Schonhoff said.
Lots of different items have been found at the bottom of canals.
"Unfortunately, people like to put things into the canal, for whatever reason. From shopping carts, to barricades. We've even found cars," Schonhoff said.
The concrete is then torn down by an excavator. Chunks are piled up before the concrete canal lining can be poured again to last another 60 years.
They work fast every winter when agricultural water demand decreases. They have to do it now as the canal is far too necessary once the desert heats up.
"We pull people from other departments to help out," Schonhoff said. "We only have a 30-day window. It's a tight window to get a lot of work done."
On Dec. 20, gates will open, and the water will start rushing down the canal again, but they aren't done yet. They'll dry out another part of the canal and get to work for another 30 days.