Walt Mares File Photo/Gila Herald: The Clifton floodgates will be closed Wednesday morning, Feb. 28, for its biannual testing. The closure will close U.S. Highway 191 for both northbound and southbound traffic from about 8 – 8:30 a.m.
10 a.m. exercise will take about 20-30 minutes
By Gualterio Casias
CLIFTON – Highway 191 North travelers should prepare for a traffic holdup through Clifton tomorrow morning, Wednesday, Feb. 28. There will be a half-hour delay as the town of Clifton tests its flood gates along the San Francisco River.
The test begins at 10 a.m. The highway, U.S. 191, will be closed to southbound and northbound traffic for about 20-30 minutes. The testing occurs twice a year.
The giant gates, known jokingly as the “Jurassic Gates” are meant to keep floodwater from pouring into South Clifton. That part of town was inundated with floodwater during the Great Flood of 1983. Many homes and businesses were badly damaged or destroyed by floodwaters that were as much as 10 feet deep.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the river ran at about 90,000 cubic feet per second.
It was the first time in anyone’s memory that South Clifton had been flooded. That was due to huge cottonwood trees that were uprooted upstream and became lodged under the bridge, forming a dam.
The levee was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Several homes and a few businesses were removed from where the levee was to be located.
The structure, which is a half-mile long, was completed in 1994 and dedicated by then-Gov. Rose Mofford.
The nickname Jurassic Gates refers to the movie Jurassic Park in which dinosaurs are held in a park with giant walls.
The Clifton Public Works Dept., using a frontend loader, will conduct the test during which the gates will be closed and then reopened. The Clifton Police Dept. And Clifton Fire Dept. will participate in the exercise. In the past, the test has taken only about 15 minutes but a half hour is scheduled in the event any glitches might occur.
