Walt Mares Photo/Gila Herald: A big semi-truck is dwarfed as it passes through the floodgates along the San Francisco River in Clifton. Jokingly referred to by locals as the “Jurassic Gates” the structures are meant to keep South Clifton being flooded as it was in the Great Flood of 1983. The gates will be closed for about an hour for testing starting at 10 a.m., Tuesday, Sept. 17. The test involves ensuring the gates can be closed in the event of a flood and keep water from flowing into South Clifton as it did in ’83
Closure scheduled for about one hour, starting at 10 a.m.
By Walt Mares
CLIFTON – The giant flood gates along the San Francisco River leading to South Clifton will be closed for an annual test Tuesday, Sept. 17. The gates will be closed at 10 a.m. and the annual drill is expected to last one-half hour to an hour.
That means that section of Coronado Boulevard (U.S. Highway 191) will be closed to traffic for that period of time. The test affects northbound and southbound traffic. Closing the gates is done at least annually to assure that they will close if the need arises. There have been close calls of near flooding over the past two decades, but nothing compared to the Great Flood of 1983 when the river ran at a record 93,000 cubic feet per second.
During those close calls, floodwaters have licked the bottom of a railroad bridge adjacent to the highway bridge that is only a few feet higher than the train bridge. The gates are often jokingly referred to by locals as the Jurassic Gates because of their size. The nickname is a takeoff on the Jurassic Park movie in which dinosaurs are held in the park by giant walls.
The Clifton gates are a key part of the flood levee built to protect South Clifton from devastation like occurred in the ’83 flood when the river spilled into that part of town and badly damaged, or destroyed, lower-lying homes and businesses in the area known as “The Flats.”
Large trees and other debris became lodged under the bridge that spanned the river, thus causing floodwater to overflow into South Clifton. It was the first time in anybody’s memory South Clifton was flooded. Neither are there any historical photos or writings about it ever being flooded.
The gates are part of an Army Corps of Engineers project that includes the huge levee that runs from the bridge to the river’s banks in South Clifton. Part of the structure runs about 100 yards high above the river. The levee was dedicated in 1994 with then-Arizona Governor Rose Mofford leading the ceremonies, along with former Arizona State Rep. Polly Rosenbaum. Both worked hard to have flood protection become a reality.
New Bridge
There were never any reports of the bridge incurring any structural instability, but it was demolished within this decade and replaced with a new one. Former Clifton Mayor Felix Callicotte was quite vocal about the new bridge and the bridge’s supports. He argued that they were quite likely to be jammed with large debris.
The debris that clogged the bridge in 1983 consisted of huge trees, mostly cottonwoods, that had been growing upsteam close to the river banks. Efforts of using large machinery, such as cranes, were fruitless in attempts to remove the trees before the river rose and ran over the bridge. The levee has made it far easier for residents and business owners in South Clifton to obtain flood insurance. That was nearly impossible, if not totally impossible to do until the levee and bridges were in place.
