2. Diversion berms can be constructed to direct the high intensity precipitation and snowmelt into the French drains, thereby dewatering the area, which will reduce the weight of the bluff.
3. Dewatering wells provide the rapid dewatering of the groundwater aquifer typically located between 40 to 60 feet below the top of your bluff. This sand lens which carries the shallow groundwater has a tendency to shear due to they water lubricity within the sand particles, this one to two foot sand lens is unstable during extremely wet conditions, i.e. spring wet weather conditions / snow melt as compared to the cohesive clay above and below the sand lens.
4. Other options are also available based on site specific conditions to include varied slope, vegetative cover, position of structures and their distance from the bluff face.
1. Provide a reduced slope and shelf at the top of the bluff (i.e. the bank or upper
cliff), so as to provide an element of safety against soil sloughing or failure.
2. Stabilize the upper bluff by decreasing the slope and reducing the saturated
water weight on the area likely to shear. This will also reduce the possibility of
soil failure and the lose of additional valuable lakeshore property.
3. Further stabilize the reduced slope area by terracing and planting native
Wisconsin prairie plants and shrubs, which are deep rooted and will thereby
overtime, provide a lattice network of deep roots securing the soil. Prairie plants
can develop roots to a depth of ten feet or greater during their growth cycle.
4. As an aesthetic benefit to the above, a thick growth of flowering native
vegetation will aesthetically enhance your lake bluff area.