Summer 2011, Volume 57, Number 3 - San Diego History Center

The Journal of San Diego History
a plan of improvement through Mission Valley similar to the existing Corps of
Engineers’ improvement from Morena Boulevard to the ocean, which is a channel
with rock-revetted levees.” 10 In other words, even back in 1961, San Diegans were
making clear that they did not want a Los Angeles-style concrete channel in
Mission Valley. But that was precisely what the Corps presented to them three
years later.
To further facilitate the flood channel project, the San Diego City Council
passed a resolution on August 29, 1963, guaranteeing that the city would carry
out all its obligations with regard to a channel, including land acquisition.
The result was a preliminary recommendation for a massive flood control
channel on the San Diego River, presented by the Corps in 1964. 11 It envisioned a
rectangular concrete structure 200-250 feet wide and 23-25 feet deep, running the
entire length of Mission Valley. It would have begun at Zion Avenue in Grantville
and continued westward through the valley, joining the existing rock-sided
channel that begins just east of I-5. As noted, the latter had been constructed in
1953 to ensure that the river would carry its sediments due west to the ocean,
rather than into the bays. The Corps’ new project for the Valley also called for
concrete side channels in Alvarado, Murray, and Murphy Canyons.
Fig. 6. The Los Angeles River concrete flood channel. Photo by P.R. Pryde.
160