Pictures of the Restoration Project

The pictoral history of the restoration of Forest Hill Lake is now on Picasa.  Click HERE to see the pictures.  You will be redirected from Kathy's website.  If you wish to return from Picasa, click the back arrow on your browser.

From the Picasa photo album you can view the pictures individually and as a slide show; make a collage or a movie; copy individual pictures to your computer or order prints.

Pictures and text by David Hatchcock.
All rights reserved.  Any reproduction of the text or pictures must be
credited to David Hathcock.

Summary of the Restoration Project

June 30, 2009
Major progress.  Engineers estimate that 3K of the 40K cubic yards of silt has been removed.  Reedy Creek has been diverted around the lake and flows through a 12" pipe to below the dam, helping to dewater the lake further.

July 7 , 2009
Progress continues in spite of the rain and vandalism. The project is about
15%-20% complete.

July 14 , 2009
Sunday's rain was a setback, but it is beginning to look like a lake lies under all that soil.

July 28 , 2009
The rain Sunday night really affected the Reedy watershed.  Even Tuesday
morning, you can see how much water is standing in the lake.  So, we have the three archive pictures, plus some other different views of the park including wildflowers, the ravine and the completely silted over south end of the lake with standing dead trees.

August 4, 2009
Mobile Dredging has really taken advantage of the dry weather the past few days.  They have moved an amazing amount of material out, and the historic confines of the lake are really beginning to take shape. Remember, this is still a construction zone, and is off-limits to the public.

August 11, 2009
Probably 55% to 60% completed with the dredging, the project is really moving ahead.  The old stone walls around the historic lake are beginning to be uncovered, and the gazebo is being rescued.  There are bull frogs still in the wet areas, and fresh deer tracks.  Still some (trespassing) walkers.  Looking ahead, the contours will be restored, stone walls resurrected or restored, a new bridge constructed at the south end across Reed Creek, new/replica lights restored, new/restored benches and shelters.  I propose hot chocolate in the gazebo in January/February.

August 25, 2009
Heavy rains over the weekend have caused serious flooding at Forest Hill Lake, delaying work by several days. The water came over the top of the dam.  Forest Hill Lake receives all the rainwater in the Reedy Creek drainage area.

September 1 , 2009
The dredging should be complete within the next ten days, and the rebuilding will be fully under way.

September 7, 2009
The Irish would call it a "soft" day.  The rest of us would call it wet.  Ducks would call it wet.  But down at the bottom of the hill, in Forest Hill Park, the lake is back.  There is work still to be done, but Forest Hill Lake is back within it's historic contours.  Reedy Creek is flowing strongly into the lake at the south end, the overflow valve is working, and we have our lake back.  Thanks to J. R. Pope and the Friends of Forest Hill Park who made this possible.  Mobile Dredging has done great work.

September 14, 2009
Almost finished with the hauling out. Engineers are completing the retention basins that will prevent the lake from re-silting in the future and make maintenance easier.  When that is complete, residents will see trucks bringing in large rocks to rebuild the lake and its borders.  Meanwhile the Vermeer SC 60 TX, a large remotely-controlled stump grinder, is grinding stumps in the upper end, as it is supposed to do.

September 21, 2009
Early morning at Forest Hill Lake, the grunts and chirps from around the lake sound like Pleistocene awakenings.  The Mud Cats are busy running up and down the hill, and across the hard lake bottom.  The last bit of excavation is the construction of two fore bays to collect silt washing into the lake and to redirect the flow of Reedy Creek to prevent erosion damage in the future.  The swamp base is going in, and the uplands area at the south end of the lake is being dressed with topsoil.  Both the upland area and the new marshland will eventually be planted with appropriate vegetation. Some of the stone walls will be rebuilt, while other portions will be replaced with rip-rap.  Eventually new benches and lights will complete the work.  I'm still expecting to have HOT CHOCOLATE AND COFFEE BY THE LAKE in January.

September 29, 2009
The big beasts were sleeping later this morning, as crews continue to work on the fine tune of the excavation. Some of the remaining stone wall is being uncovered, and Reedy Creek is back within its historic walls. The heron has returned to his (or her) habitat in the upper creek. While it appears that the contractors will have finished their work within the next month or six weeks, we are now told that the rededication may be delayed well into next year because of an interdepartmental dispute over restoration/replacement of the lights
around the lake. Some of us are still planning a "Welcome Back" celebration for the lake in January, so we'll notify you when so you can come down, have coffee or hot chocolate, and admire what has been one of the most successful projects undertaken in the city in many years.
 

This was not a disaster response like Battery Park. This was a planned
restoration, and it involved some careful planning from an engineering
standpoint plus neighborhood involvement. The lake was even designed to serve as a stormwater retention basin for the entire Reedy Creek drainage and will serve as a blueprint for how our lake system can serve as regional components of a stormwater management plan.
  

From a personal standpoint, I have been coming to the lake since I moved to Richmond in 1982. I am seeing features I have never seen before.

October 6, 2009
The early mornings may have a chill, but down by the lake it is still the lushness of summer.  The arrogance of the heron has returned. Mobile Dredging has completed the shaping of the lake to its new contours.  Masons are scheduled to rebuild the stone wall where possible, and where the wall is too damaged for repairs, a necklace of grey granite, right-sized to match the old stone, is being put in place.  Within two weeks, the lake will be refilled, from Reedy Creek and the springs that enter. Soon the wetlands plantings will be put in place.
The uplands at the south of the lake will be reseeded in the coming days.

October 13, 2009
Forest Hill Lake is slowly, quietly filling, one good rain away from full pool. The great yellow machines that have snorted and growled through the summer have moved away from the lake, their work finished, and soon will be hauled away to another job. The mound of black silt, 40,000 yards of it, is gone.

 
There's still work to be done, grading and clearing brush, cutting grass and weeds, planting marsh plants and upland trees.  The Parks Department has benches to repair and replace, new lights to line the shoreline.  The roads need repairing from the summer of construction, but we can see, ahead of schedule, the results of the time and forethought by Parks planners and engineers, contractors and workmen.

October 16, 2009
The past two days have been good only for ducks and tree planters, and we had both at Forest Hill Lake.  Contractors are planting about 400 native specie trees, including spice bush and river birch at the wetlands area at the south end of the park.  Water grasses have been planted on the shelf that will be under water shortly. 

  
Forest Hill Lake is within a foot of being at its optimum level, thanks to the rains of October.  By Friday, at least five ducks have returned, and you may be able to pick out in one photo the tracks of a moderately large deer. For all those who waited with anticipation, the result is going to be worthy of the effort.

October 20, 2009
We began this journey in May, when reeds and marsh grasses choked the historic old lake, the remnant of 30 years of neglect [see bottom of page].  We traveled the path through the summer when great yellow machines growled and chewed their way through the silt of 30 years, often as deep as 12 feet. We saw the lake bed exposed, cleaned and reshaped, new drainage basins created and lined with stone, new walls wrapped around the lake, and new grasses and trees planted.
 

Today we approach the end of the journey, while the greens of lake summer still color the hills but the coat of many colors that is autumn in Virginia begins to be reflected in the lake.  The deer and the ducks are back, the heron fishes in shallow water.
 

We began this journey as a promise to Richmond that this great project, this commitment to our future, would not be ignored, that it would be documented.
 

Now the restoration is essentially done, and the Mobile Dredging equipment and crews are on their way out of town. It is to city crews to finish the work, to restore and replace benches and shelters, to replace the historic lights around the lake and the paths.

This will mark the end of our weekly visit to the lake to document the progress.  We will still visit from time to time.  The Department of Parks has given us back our lake and our park.  It is up to us to keep it.

May 22, 2010

More than 250 people gathered at Forest Hill Lake Saturday, May
22nd to celebrate to rededication of Forest Hill Lake and the first
annual Forest Hill Lake Regatta. 

Mayor Dwight C. Jones and Council President Kathy Graziano both
spoke of the efforts of the neighborhood associations and the Department
of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities is working to rebuild a
facility damaged by 30 years of neglect and two major tropical storms.

Last year DPRCF invested more than $1.4 million in renovating and
restoring the lake, replanting trees, shrubs and cover material and
restocking the lake with fish.

Woodland Heights swept the regatta events with a neighborhood
team winning the Boscobel Cup just ahead of the Forest Hills team.
Westover Hills boaters were handicapped by an unfortunate propensity to
sink. Woodlands Heights also won the people's choice award for the best decorated boat.

August 3, 2010

The engineer told the crane operator "One more inch."  The steel
bridge section slipped gently to the east one inch and dropped into
place.  At 11:14, August 3rd, 2010, the first section of the Forest Hill
Park Bridge touched ground, marking the beginning of the end of the
project six years in the making. When the bridge and its approach
sections are finished by the end of the month, the almost $2 million
Forest Hill Lake and Park restoration project will be complete.