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| 10/7/2009 2:03:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Excavators build logjams on the north bank of the Mashel. |
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Nisqually Tribe wraps up river reconstruction
With the rains moving in, a $1.4 million reconstruction project in Smallwood Park on the Mashel River in Eatonville has been going from dusk to dawn. The project has resulted in construction of eight new "logjams" designed both to control the river during flooding and to provide a better habitant for salmon reproduction.
Flooding last winter nearly took out the north side of the SR161 bridge next to Smallwood Park and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) spent more than a month in major channel repairs and rebuilding the banks at one spot south of the bridge to prevent washout of SR161.
The reconstruction of the Mashel River in Smallwood Park was significant in that the project allows for temporary rechanneling of the river and making a roadway out of the river to bring in excavators, trucks and bulldozers to build the logjams, bring in heavy boulders and do major reinforcement along the north bank and to the south wall of the mill pond.
Another interesting aspect of the project is that all fish were removed from the river construction area before construction and construction runoff was not allowed to contaminate the river. Hopes are that flooding will be controlled and the river will be a much-improved breeding ground for salmon.
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