SAGUARO A RIPPLE OF HOPE LAKE FOR: Forest Service Beginning Repairs on Damaged Docks
By Mike Branom, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.
Sep. 13–EVTRIB.COM
To view work being done on the docks, visit our Web site.
The federal bureaucracy never moves fast, so Saguaro Lake’s weather-battered docks and piers have been unusable for a long while.
That’s why it was notable to see a large crane parked along the shore Wednesday morning. As a mossy metal walkway, torn free of its moorings months ago, was lifted from the water, order finally was being restored to the popular East Valley lake.
“We know we’re going to get storms,” said Art Wirtz, ranger for the Tonto National Forest’s Mesa District. “But this last year was really bad.”
How bad was evident in the list of damage: two fishing docks near the marina and a third at Butcher Jones Beach, plus courtesy docks near the marina, at Bagley Flat Campground and at Key Hole recreation area.
These were not dents and dings to be hammered out, either.
For example, the dock under repair Wednesday had been wrenched in two by the wicked combination of wind and waves. The gangplank connecting the dock to land was partially underwater. A second walkway and ramada were knocked out of alignment, the metal creaking with every swell of the water.
With all that has to be repaired, when should everything be finished?
“Soon — that’s what we’re hoping for,” Wirtz replied.
The U.S. Forest Service, which is responsible for the lake’s recreational facilities, is paying $62,000 for the repairs.
Crucial to restoring damaged docks and piers is strengthening their anchors on the lake bed. They weigh around 3,200 pounds each, and placing them where they need to be is an engineering feat in itself.
That’s when the Forest Service’s engineers and contractor put innovation to work.
“They asked ‘How are we going to do this?’” Wirtz recalled. “Every time they looked at the equipment, they said, ‘This isn’t going to work, that’s not going to work.’”
For a solution, they built a raft with a large hole in its middle. The boat carries the anchor to where it’s needed, and then workers roll it through the hole.
“Bloop! And the weights go into the water,” Wirtz said.
Added features include wheels below the raft’s floats and a welded-on trailer hitch for easy transportation.
If the anchors now installed aren’t enough, the Forest Service has in reserve some unique weights, courtesy of General Motors.
Kit Landon is a senior engineering technician at the General Motors Desert Proving Grounds in Mesa. He also is a regular at the lake, dating to the 1970s when he pumped gas and sold bait at the marina.
Earlier this year, Landon read about the problems with Saguaro’s docks and piers. He then looked to the ballast, ranging between 500 to 3,500 pounds, used to test GM vehicles.
GM is selling its Mesa facility and opening a new facility in Yuma, but the carmaker hadn’t planned to include the ballast in the move.
“I called the Forest Service, and they said they could use them,” Landon said. “I talked to my supervisors, and everybody agreed it was a good idea.”
For now, the GM weights will be held in reserve at the Forest Service’s Goldfield Ranch facility.
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