The River Runs Dry/The River Comes Down to Earth -- Brooks Aqueduct NHS, Brooks AB CAN - Alberta Heritage Markers on Waymarking.com

The third of three panels overlooking the Brooks Aqueduct and the modern irrigation canal that replaced it, this panel shares the history of how the Aqueduct was replaced, and compares the costs of replacement in 1979 with the original construction costs in 1914.

The marker read as follows:

"THE RIVER RUNS DRY

[photo]
The interior formwork for the replacement siphon (main)

(inset bottom)
Placing concrete in the siphon. Notice the curved reinforcing steel and the forms for the footings (inset top). A train goes around the site of the new siphon on the diversion track with the inlet to the original siphon in the foreground

[photo]
Looking at the construction site from the new siphon, July 1977. The replacement of the Brooks aqueduct was authorized by a Canada-Alberta Irrigation Rehabilitation Agreement. The project was funded, designed, and managed by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration.

[photo]
Filling the original siphon with concrete (inset). The Brooks Aqueduct and its replacement (main)

[green panel L]

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

ORIGINAL BROOKS AQUEDUCT

Built: 1912-1914
Cost: $650,000
Material: Reinforced concrete hydrostatic catenary on columns and footings

STRUCTURE
Length: 10,320 ft (3.2 km)
Width: 23 ft (7 m)
Depth: 9 ft (3 m)
Height (max): 60 ft (18.29 m)
Capacity: 640 cfs (18.12 cms)
Velocity: 5.08 f/s (1.55 m/s)

SIPHON
Length: 140 ft (42.7 m)
Diameter: 9.75 ft (2.97 m)
Capacity: 640 cfs (18.12 cms)
Concrete: 700 cu yds (535 cubic meters)

BROOKS AQUEDUCT REPLACEMENT

Built: 1974-1979
Cost: $7,600,000
Material: Earthfill

STRUCTURE
Length: 13,700 ft (4,175 m)
Width: 44 ft (13.4 m) bed
Depth: 6 ft (1.83 m) water
Height (max): 60 ft (18.29 m)
Capacity: 950 cfs (26.9 cms)
Velocity: 2.55 f/s (0.78 m/s)

SIPHON
Length: 561 ft (171 m)
Diameter: 14 ft (4.27 m)
Capacity: 950 cfs (26.9 cms)
Concrete: 2,453.5 cu. yds (1875.9 cubic m)

[blue marker, center]

THE RIVER IN THE SKY COMES DOWN TO EARTH

“So we grabbed hold of a pick, just kind of lifted it up a bit and then drove it right through, right through the bowl. Well, as the pick went through the bowl his hair stood straight up on end, I can assure you.”

The aqueduct was showing its age. Although the problem of leaky joints had largely been fixed and the coatings on the inside of the show are holding up fairly well, the aqueduct had been gradually wearing out from the date first started carrying water. Much of the concrete in the bowl was rotten, and although the Eastern Irrigation District had replaced just over half that concrete, the possibility of a break or the structure collapsing under a full load of water worried the districts administrators.

The elegant concrete Aqueduct was replaced with an elevated to bank earthfill canal and a reinforced concrete inverted siphon that could carry about 50 percent more water. It began operating in 1979. The annual report of the Eastern Irrigation District barely made a mention of the passing of the “River in the Sky.” “The replacement of the Brooks Aqueduct went on stream in late June,” the report noted between listing repairs to the Bassanio Dam and changes made to water rights policy. The River in the Sky had come down.

Described by engineers in 1925 as a “peculiar structure which had no exact parallel elsewhere,” the Brooks aqueduct carried approximately 10 billion cubic metres of water during its lifetime. It was the largest steel reinforced concrete aqueduct in North America. The inverted siphon that sent water swirling under the railway tracks was an early application of reinforced concrete to a complex tubular form supported on a soft soil foundation. The Brooks aqueduct is, as the Brooks newspaper trumpeted at the time of its completion, “a considerable engineering feat.”

[green panel R]
HOW MUCH WATER?

Engineers estimate 10 billion cubic metres of water flowed through the aqueduct during its lifetime.

This amount of water would fill Sylvan Lake 24 times or Lake Louise 324 times. It would fill just over half of Cold Lake, or barely 1/16 of Lake Athabasca.

What it did do year after year was carry water for the farmers who needed it."

Type of Marker: Cultural Sign Age: Historic Site or Building Marker Parking: very easy Placement agency: Eastern Irrigation District and partners

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