THE PUBLIC OUTCRY WAS LOUD AND CLEAR

"We do not want hundreds of tons of rocks in front of our houses and in our neighborhood!"

On an Iowa highway project between Altoona and Pleasant Hill, neighbors were seeing and hearing about plans for a much needed road-widening--but were quite disturbed about the 900+ tons of rock rip rap designed for the 16 outlets on the job. As an abundant and cheap resource in Iowa, people had plenty of experience with rock rip rap along road and commercial property. They knew it looked OK for a few weeks or a season, and then the weeds and debris would take over for years to come.

Bob Rice, a county engineer and liaison for the project, is familiar with ScourStop as a replacement for rock rip rap. He called Terry Venteicher of Carpenter Erosion Control, a Central Iowa erosion and sediment control contractor (ESC), to obtain design and pricing information for ScourStop as an alternative product for the project.

Venteicher gave Rice detailed outlet protection and estimated pricing to install ScourStop transition mats. As is the usual scenario, the erosion control system of ScourStop and turf reinforcement mats (TRMs) was actually less expensive than rock. The rock was even priced at cost, typically an incidental, and not a profit center for the contractor of the project.