New Bridge across Outlet on Aqua Vista Dr.
During the week of August 26-30 (2019), the outlet stream at the north end of the lake was opened up by replacing the westernmost culvert on Aqua Vista Dr. with a bridge. The return of the lake outflow to a more natural, pre-pipeline condition has been a long-standing goal of the MLSA, since the three years (2014-2016) that the lake suffered significant blue-green algal (cyanobacteria) blooms. Construction of the bridge upgrades the stream crossing to meet present requirements of the NS Department of Environment.
The construction of the bridge was made possible by the many donations of its members over several years, and particularly by very generous special donations over the past year spearheaded by Dave Lilly. Members of the MLSA Board of Directors both past and present have contributed much time and energy to make this happen. We would particularly like to thank John Green for contributing his professional engineering expertise in designing the bridge and supervising its construction. This project would not have been possible without all of these contributions. Finally, we would also like to thank the Aqua Vista group for their support and patience during the construction.
Signage and reflector posts have been installed as safety measures. Note that the base level of the new opening has been set slightly above that of the old culvert, in order to insure that the lake remains at a similar level during low water conditions. In addition, an electronic pressure sensor was installed in early June to automatically measure lake depths (except during winter ice cover). We will continue to monitor and report on these values in the future.
