March 12, 2019
NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact: Steve Stuebner, 208-484-0295, sstuebner@cableone.net
Flood District #10 completes work on Boise River flood-management projects to repair damages from 2017 flooding
BOISE – Construction contractors for Flood District #10 finished work on two flood-management projects this week on the Boise River to repair damages from the epic winter of 2017.
About 1.5 miles downstream from the Glenwood Bridge, contractors repaved a 270-foot section of the Boise River Greenbelt on Tuesday with brand new asphalt. This section of the pathway, managed by Ada County Parks & Waterways, will be reopened to the general public tomorrow morning, Wednesday, March 12. The pathway is on the south side of the Boise River.
At this location, Flood #District #10 contractors shored up the riverbank on the south side of the river and reduced water flows in a side channel that threatened to undercut the Greenbelt and homes nearby. The $110,000 project was co-funded by the Idaho Water Resource Board and Flood District #10.
Flood #10 had a very short window of time to complete both of the flood-management projects because of flood-control releases that increased the level of the Boise River. “We appreciate how quickly our contractors worked on the projects,” said Mike Dimmick, District Manager for Flood District #10.
During the Winter/Spring 2017 flooding event, the Boise River was at flood stage for more than 100 days. The strong hydraulics of the flooding river made changes to the river bed and the river banks in numerous places, some of which needed to be repaired for public safety and to protect private property.
The New Dry Creek project will return the river to its normal channel, protect the Greenbelt pathway, harden the channel bottom to reduce head-cutting at the irrigation diversion, and reduce flood risk to adjacent landowners, Dimmick said.
In the Duck Alley area on the south channel of the Boise River, near Eagle, Flood District #10 completed a high-tech streambank-stabilization project with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Idaho Water Resource Board and property owners.
The goals of the $250,000 project, also funded with a grant from the Idaho Water Resource Board, were to redirect the river flow back to the Boise River channel and redirect flood waters from agricultural land back to the normal river channel. The bank-stabilization project also featured the use of bioengineering – log root wads, willow plantings, cottonwood plantings and grass seedings for long-term stability, officials said.
“The Duck Alley pit capture issue was quite alarming to us because if the river was allowed to create a new channel through that old mining pond and agricultural area, it could continue carving a channel away from the river toward homes and agricultural land,” Dimmick said.
A third project, called the Porter and Mulchay project, has been completed in the Caldwell area next to the Boise River. The $77,600 project was co-funded by the Idaho Water Resource Board’s flood-management grant program. The project will reduce erosion to adjacent agricultural property next to the Boise River, remove substantial gravel deposits left by the 2017 flood that threatened the Porter diversion structure, and reduce flooding threat to the city of Middleton.
For more information, contact Mike Dimmick, Flood District #10 District Manager, 208-861-2766. Flood District #10 manages flooding damages and debris that arise from high-water runoff in the spring months. The district removes many hazard trees from the river on an ongoing basis that can cause damage to property downstream. See more at boiseriver.org.
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