By Tracie Mitchell
Staff Writer 

Designs near completion for riverbank repair

 

January 11, 2019



WORLAND – The Washakie County Conservation District expects to have final designs of the riverbank stabilization project completed by the end of this month.

In April 2018, the Washakie County Conservation District was approved for federal funding from the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s [NRCS] Emergency Watershed Protection Program to fix a 1,200 foot section of the Big Horn River riverbank behind the Big Horn Co-op and Paxton Automotive, south of Worland.

According to the Washakie County Conservation District, in some places along the 1200 foot section of the bank, more than one third of the berm [riverbank] width has been scoured away or is badly eroded. 

The conservation district has hired Nelson Engineering to create a NRCS-approved design for the stabilization of the riverbank. Dietz stated that the approved design is expected to be ready by the end of January with construction beginning mid-August to September. “Our plans are to do the actual construction during that time when the flows [water] are real low,” Washakie County Conservation District Director Tori Dietz said.

“Because of the 2016 excessive snow melt and the reservoir [Boysen] release being increased for a long period of time, clear into probably July of that year, it caused a lot of flood damage around the county. So those funds were the same that helped fund the Worland sewer line that got exposed north of town. That was a different category but it was the same funds. This all started with that year, so we applied for the funds and they had to be congressionally approved for this particular project because it wasn’t an emergency, where there was a building ready to fall into the river, that’s how they base their emergency tag. So we had to wait for congress to approve the funds, that’s what was done in April,” Dietz said. “It’s all due to the flooding, ice and extensive releases from Boysen, it saturated the berm, it’s been in place since the early 1900s, from what I can gather. So it exposed a lot of the riprap and the bank started sluffing and chunking off,” she added.

The NRCS’s preliminary estimate for the project was $1,039,268. After the design is completed and approved, the conservation district will put the project out for bids. “When that engineering design gets finalized at the end of January, they include a cost estimate, based on what they see for common charges around the area and materials. Then we will then send it out for bids to construction companies. We are hoping that none of those bids we get in go over what funds were approved which was that $1,039,268,” Dietz stated.

The Washakie County Conservation District, along with Washakie Emergency Management, Washakie County Commissioners, City of Worland and the property owners have worked together to implement stabilization measures.

 
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