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Board Games

Board Games

Last summer, a Laguna Beach woman decided to kick people off the sand near her oceanfront home.

“I’m not joking around,” she screamed. “It’s not harassment on the beach, it’s harassment in my whole property. Get out of here! Now!”

She dragged a rope across the beach, marked an imaginary boundary and continued to shout. Beachgoers packed up and trudged away.

Spot Fix It

Spot Fix It

Walk the dirt trail along the lower American River. Underfoot is cobble, buried in soil and held in place by decades-old tree roots.

Added in the 1950s, the smooth stones have protected the riverbank from erosion for more than seven decades. Cobble is a far cry from riprap, large angular rock and rubble used to protect shorelines.

“Cobble is very effective and still holding in place,” says Bill Avery, a biologist and Sacramento State professor. “Roots plus cobble are almost invincible. You’ve got extremely powerful erosion protection.

“It does not need to be covered with angular riprap exploded out of a quarry.”

Rough Road

Rough Road

There is no band of brothers when it comes to bridge building. In the world of concrete and rebar, it’s every man for himself.

That’s my takeaway from discussions with Caltrans about the city’s doomed bicycle bridge over Interstate 5 and Riverside Boulevard. The state transportation agency’s attitude is, whatever happens with that bridge is the city’s problem.

“The City of Sacramento is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the construction contract of the bridge,” a Caltrans spokesman tells me.

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