After more than a decade of multiple phases, the complete Redmond Central Connector Trail that transforms an abandoned rail corridor into a multimodal regional connection was officially introduced to the public. State, local, and project leaders joined the broader community to speak to the importance of the completed project that unifies downtown Redmond and its neighboring urban areas with the natural setting of Sammamish Valley.
“This trail not only connects Redmond to our neighbors in Sammamish, Kirkland, and Woodinville—it also connects us to many of the things that make Redmond special, including the natural beauty of the Sammamish Valley, parks, gathering places, public art, transit, local businesses, and the energy of Downtown.”
– Angela Birney, Redmond Mayor
The completion of this 1.6-mile segment follows two earlier phases that added 2.3 miles of trail extending from downtown between 2013 and 2017. In addition to several business districts, the project also completes a linkage to the 42-mile Eastrail trail network as well as provides access to Sound Transit stations for direct access to the Bellevue and Seattle area (including SeaTac Airport). This final phase also just so happens to pass directly in front of Otak’s Redmond office. Its proximity not only provided our team as stakeholders with quick access and a first-hand view of progress, but will now benefit them as members of the community with alternate commute options. Several staff members made their way to the event by bike or on foot to join the celebration that also included remarks from project manager Nico Vanderhorst.
“One of the key aspects of this project has always been about making connections… it had been difficult to get to downtown without a car and adding these alternatives for regional connectivity is very powerful.”
– Nico Vanderhorst, Project Manager
About the Redmond Central Connector Trail
This rail to trail project transformed a rail corridor, originally constructed in 1889, into a multiuse connection between downtown Redmond and the surrounding area. Completed across three phases, the transportation design process started with planning efforts that set a vision for the trail. Ahead of phase three, initial work was completed to add fish passable culverts, create a subbase for the trail, and strategically place utilities for Puget Sound Energy in anticipation of completing this new transportation asset.
“One of the technical challenges we solved was how to retain stormwater runoff. What we did was turn the east shoulder of the corridor into a collection and flow control facility avoiding very expensive piping and a retention pond for which there was no available space.”
– Touta Phensgsavath, Project Engineer
Navigating the Sammamish Valley, the trail accentuates the area’s natural surroundings, including a vegetated stormwater control facility to safely treat runoff and a retrofitted historic bridge with lookouts over the Sammamish River. Accessibility and safety were central to the project throughout its design. The final phase of work added crossings at numerous intersections with features like variable paving materials, defined concrete scoring patterns, urban amenities, signalized crossings with improved pedestrian push buttons, and uniquely designed roadway barriers. Together these features established a visual consistency as part of maximizing the overall user experience.
Members of the Otak team using the Redmond Central Connector Trail
Left to Right: Nico Vanderhorst (Project Manager), Touta Phensgsavath (Project Engineer)
A map and signage on display during the Redmond Central Connector ribbon cutting event
Otak team members gathered at the Redmond Central Connector Trail ribbon cutting
There are more than 250,000 rivers stretching over 3 million miles across the United States. These streams lead to countless more waterways that form an interconnected system of essential natural resources for communities, agriculture, and wildlife.
The decades of development that has allowed for the growth of towns and cities is now better understood for its unintended impacts on these natural systems, the people that rely on them, and the aquatic species that call them home.
Every year, millions of fish—many threatened or endangered—migrate between the ocean and the waterways that make up their native habitat. For many other fish species in inland states, this remarkable journey takes place wholly within freshwater systems. Altogether, these migrations—often triggered by seasonal changes—occur as fish seek out optimal conditions for spawning, feeding, or overwintering. It is a vital process to maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems and it’s a process that’s often challenged by infrastructure and habitat fragmentation.
Structures such as dams, culverts, and levees have long been recognized as barriers to fish passage. And while good progress has been made in removing this infrastructure where possible, waterway restoration has continued to evolve over the past few decades. Encompassing a broader approach, today’s restoration tactics better account for the full complexities of watersheds as well as the resilience of important infrastructure they’re connected to.
In this blog, we’ll discuss how a more holistic approach is being taken to restore waterways to their more natural state, protecting both habitat and human access to this vital resource.
What is Waterway Restoration?
Waterway restoration is the practice of returning natural systems to a condition more in-line with their natural state, creating and improving access to healthy water resources for communities and aquatic species alike. While true restoration is sometimes not possible in an urban setting, there can still be enhancements that restore at least a portion of the lost function.
Restoration work typically involves evaluation of geomorphic, hydrologic, hydraulic, and ecologic function as projects are planned and designed. Hydraulic modeling and hydrologic analysis calculate correct depth and velocity conditions, which can be used to better design systems that, for instance, target specific fish species.
Taken a step further, restoration design seeks to replicate how a stream might have naturally evolved in the absence of development. Stream simulation supports this aim by assessing natural geomorphic processes while also considering what’s currently impacting channel evolution and how it might change in the future.
Common Waterway Restoration Features
In support of communities, aquatic species, and healthier floodplains as a whole, there are a number of common features in waterway restoration design aimed at different goals.
Regrading to raise the streambed, to lower the floodplain, or remove of infrastructure such as a tide gate, culvert, or levee allows a river to access its natural floodplain. This improves habitat availability and complexity, and floodwater storage.
Planting native vegetation along streambanks helps to stabilize soil, filters runoff, and provides shade and habitat for aquatic and terrestrial species, and wetlands absorb floodwaters, filter pollutants, and serve as critical breeding grounds for fish and amphibians.
Restoring natural channel form and processes (e.g., meandering/multi-threaded channel and pool, riffle, boulder/log step features) to improve flow dynamics, sediment transport, and habitat diversity.
Using woody material in stream restoration projects provides habitat where various types of fish—as well as insects they feed on—can live and thrive. Logs (with and without rootwads attached) and tree limbs are anchored along the banks to reduce erosion, add aquatic organism habitat (cover, resting areas), and support floodplain function. As the wood decays it also adds important nutrients to the water.
Removing obsolete dams or retrofitting them with more resilient, fish-friendly designs restores connectivity, improves ecosystem health, and supports our community that relies upon this infrastructure.
Using living plant materials in combination with natural and synthetic support structures, mimicking natural processes where erosion is most severe and bank stabilization is needed. This can include the use of riprap slope protection that is modified to incorporate elements of the other restoration techniques such as, inclusion of large woody materials or soil to support plantings.
Fish Barriers, Encroachment, and Water Quality
Over time, as restoration work has become more prevalent, along with the data to study and even adaptively manage its impacts, the field has continued to evolve. Restoration efforts today look beyond the removal of barriers alone to consider all factors that contribute to healthy systems, often requiring a more holistic approach that evaluates the entire watershed.
In addition to removing physical barriers, waterway restoration work now also accounts for encroachment on waterways from sedimentation and pollution as a part of overall water quality. This is an important step in understanding impacts to adjacent habitat and community infrastructure. Russ Gaston, Senior Vice President, Water & Natural Resources, has decades experience studying and improving fish passages, working in both the public and private sector. He explains, “for years, restoration projects focused mainly on removing physical barriers or helping fish pass through or around barriers. What we have seen though, is streams that had polluted water flowing into them did not achieve positive results after physical barriers were removed. Rather, they saw little to no improvement at all.”
For instance, even after over 20 years of work in the French Creek watershed of Snohomish County removing fish barriers, restoration of spawning salmon to the upper watershed remained impeded because the water-quality-barrier in the watershed had not been improved.
Since then, the team has worked with the county and farmers in the watershed to explore new options to both improve water quality and restore stream buffers in the agricultural lands. “We commonly focus on stormwater runoff and work to create a stable channel to keep bank erosion to natural rates, which are primary sources of pollutants in a stream. We also use the Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (B-IBII) to project the health of the stream before and after the restoration is completed,” says Russ.
This more comprehensive approach to waterway restoration is a collaborative, multidisciplinary effort involving cities, counties, agencies, tribal consultation, and property owners to fully assess common goals. Consideration for regional stormwater management, water rights, connectivity of wetlands, and aquatic habitat are all incorporated into a design for lasting solutions.
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Resilience
To fully understand what is happening within a waterway and what barriers—physical or otherwise—are having the greatest impact, the entire watershed needs to be considered. This requires the expertise and perspective of a multi-disciplinary approach that ideally includes structural and civil engineers, geomorphologists, biologists, wetland ecologists, and landscape architects. Russ, who has witnessed changes in the industry firsthand, points out that it’s not just multiple disciplines weighing in on a project, it’s diverse perspectives working together. “What I thought was an integrated team years ago, is nothing compared to what we do today.”
Working closely together, integrated teams have a greater understanding of all aspects of a restoration project and how it will deliver greater resilience in current and future conditions. From leading the next generation of work in the Pacific Northwest to preparing watersheds for wildfire in the Mountain West, Otak has been at the forefront of this shift to a more holistic approach to improving fish passages. These multidisciplinary efforts not only aim for multi-species preservation but also work closely with various jurisdictions—cities, counties, the state— to maximize cost benefit for whole communities.
A common thread within the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry exists in creating lasting impact. While this theme naturally applies to work that aims to improve lives in communities from one generation to the next, it’s also about preparing the next generation of professionals to continue that work.
At the University of Colorado, Boulder, the CVEN 4899 Senior Design course takes a different approach to building future AEC professionals by giving students a real-world example project to put their knowledge into practice. The project is part of Otak’s work on South Boulder Creek and several leaders from the multidisciplinary expertise involved participated in the classroom and in the field. Their hope was to lend their perspective as mentors to advancing an educational system where a focus on technical knowledge often doesn’t include the value of practical experience.
Understanding how complex projects go from concept to completion involves familiarity with nuanced aspects of decision making in each phase, including stakeholder engagement, technical design, constructability, budgeting, and interdisciplinary coordination. This course helps balance the gap between hard and soft skills in the complete design and construction process, equipping students with a well-rounded start toward successful careers in the industry.
In this blog, we’ll dive into the details of this unique capstone project and the information presented to guide it across four distinct elements. Read on or skip ahead:
The Project – A Stream, Two Structures, and the Solutions of Multidisciplinary Work
In the backyard of CU Boulder’s campus is a nine-mile stretch of South Boulder Creek that extends from Eldorado Canyon to its confluence with Boulder Creek. It represents one of several stream sites identified for improvement by Boulder Flycasters (a local chapter of Trout Unlimited) after multiple studies in the area. The subsequent Stream Management Plan recommended the modification or replacement of multiple structures while the City of Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks Department aimed to improve the functionality of all water crossings across their trail network in the area.
The collective goals of a hypothetical client, The South Boulder Creek Alliance, took shape in a request for proposal (RFP) that combines two projects near the South Mesa Trailhead. One focuses on modifying or replacing the Davidson Diversion structure, and the second on the pedestrian access bridge crossing South Boulder Creek as part of the Mesa Trail.
Through this course, students were asked to develop hypothetical proposals for this real-world project. In developing their designs for each element, they were challenged to balance stakeholder needs, reduce costs through innovative materials and construction methods, and minimize impacts to the environment and public—both during construction and in the long term. Several presentations from industry professionals would guide them along the way, all with a focus on sustainability and resiliency considerations.
Assessing Water Resources and Environmental Conditions
Understanding water resources is an essential component to civil engineering, which of course is accentuated when a stream is involved. It’s a concept very familiar to Tracy Emmanuel, a geomorphologist and team lead for environmental as well as water and natural resources work at Otak, who—alongside colleagues Chris Romeyn and Maddie McNamee—brought expertise to this course in the classroom and the field. While Chris and Maddie led a tutorial on hydraulic modeling, Tracy guided students through her team’s approach to water-related aspects of projects with an emphasis on the types of questions they ask in the project process to uncover the right design solutions—rather than simply providing the answers.
Using this information, students examined the project area’s floodplain and how the flow of the stream impacts the design in a number of key ways:
Determining watershed hydrology and waterway flows as they relate to water rights, fish passage, and with consideration of an expansion project of the upstream Gross Reservoir Dam
Examining a floodplain assessment of impacts to 100-year and 500-year floodplain boundaries in relation to those published by FEMA and local agencies
Completing hydraulic analysis to determine placement and impact of both the diversion structure and potential bridge crossing.
Determining scour from a 500-year storm event and channel erosion protection for the structures
These areas not only enhanced the students’ understanding of water resources engineering but also underlined the importance of designing for the long-term ecological health of the area and maximizing its value to the surrounding community.
Making Context-Sensitive Structural Design Decisions
Structural design is about more than just crunching numbers—it’s about understanding how context, constraints, and client priorities shape a project. David Graff, a structural engineer at Otak, provided students a window into better understanding the how that surrounding context impacts the structural design process, while remaining rooted in real-world conditions.
David emphasized that before even beginning detailed calculations, engineers must make critical decisions about structure type, channel impact, materials, constructability, and aesthetic expectations. He also highlighted the importance of asking the right questions—What problems is the client trying to solve? What’s the budget? Are there successful precedent projects to draw from?
To demonstrate this process, he shared the structure alignment selection process behind the 19th Street Pedestrian Bridge, which exists right on CU Boulder’s campus. He used the project as an example familiar to these students, illustrating how thoughtful engineering, paired with client engagement and project constraint understanding, leads to a successful and unique design solution.
These insights aimed to aid the students as they worked through the structural and geotechnical aspects of the project:
Describing existing site conditions, including subsurface conditions and soil profiles
Determining if any elements of existing structures can be reused in the final condition
Evaluating the pros and cons of different structural materials and systems for the pedestrian bridge design
Considering preventative maintenance for the structures and those associated future costs
The opportunity to navigate working with multiple disciplines and stakeholders gave students a fuller understanding of the structural design process and the high-level decisions that come with it.
Building High-Performing Teams with Balanced Skills
Technical expertise is essential, but the ability to work well with others and communicate effectively is also critical to a project’s success. Henry Alaman, Otak’s Colorado Regional Director and a member of the owner’s representative team, shared with students the importance of balancing technical skills with the soft skills that aren’t always covered in traditional engineering coursework.
Henry spoke about how interpersonal skills influence both the pursuit of projects and their ultimate success. From team collaboration to community engagement, the ability to build relationships and gain buy-in from stakeholders can be an essential piece of the project process.
To reinforce the importance of collaboration, and communication, Henry led an interactive team-building exercise that encouraged students to break down barriers and avoid the siloed thinking that can hinder progress in interdisciplinary teams.
Considering Constructability and Managing a Project to Completion
The best design in the world won’t matter if it can’t be built efficiently. That was central theme from Patrick Pease, a leader in Otak’s construction management group, who presented the practical realities of turning design concepts into built environments.
Patrick walked students through the various steps in the construction process—from initial planning to regular coordination with owners, municipalities, and contractors. He stressed the construction phase being where most major cost fluctuations occur, making coordination crucial to maximizing project value. Proactive communication is one key to avoiding these issues by resolving disputes quickly, maintaining schedules, and keeping projects on budget. To drive this point, Patrick shared two real-world examples that showed opposing results. One—CO7 and SH119—was executed efficiently due to strong stakeholder coordination and planning. The other experienced delays and cost overruns due to poor coordination and lack of clarity between parties.
With the aim of ensuring their designs could be completed, the students’ proposals included various aspects of project constructability:
Creating a list of stakeholders, including their role and involvement, who need to be involved during active construction
Providing strategies for avoiding public interruptions as well as any needed closures or detours to the trail system
Mitigating risk and impact to the environment, including fish spawning in the area
Creating a detailed cost estimate along with a design and construction schedule with phasing plans
A close look at the construction phase helped students understand how critical it is to build strong working relationships early and sustain them throughout a project’s lifecycle.
Bridging the Gap Between Classroom and Career
By simulating a true design-build environment, the CVEN 4899 Senior Design course gives students invaluable experience beyond textbooks. Otak is honored to support these future AEC professionals with a first-hand look at the full project process from a multidisciplinary environment.
As a firm committed to the professional development of our people and the improvement of our communities, we see investing in the next generation not just as mentorship but central to our mission.
A cornerstone of any growing community is its connectivity. Roadway engineering provides more than just conduits for cars; it forms the framework for mobility in a community that leverages a variety of modes of transportation.
A well-designed transportation network featuring different types of roadways can have widespread impact on economic development and individual wellness. This includes improvements that ensure all areas—especially underserved populations—have access to jobs, essential services, and amenities as well as healthier lifestyles through reductions in emissions and the promotion of active transportation. In this blog we discuss how roadway designs exist at the intersection of planning and transportation engineering to support the growth of healthier, more sustainable communities.
Roadway engineering is the planning, design, and construction of transportation infrastructure that enhances existing roadways or establishes new connections within a community. The practice integrates technical expertise, urban planning, and environmental considerations to develop safe, efficient, and accessible transportation systems that serve both current and future needs.
The design process starts with an assessment of existing conditions, including topographic mapping, survey and GIS, to understand site constraints. From there, engineers develop roadway layouts that meet design and safety standards. The final design incorporates permitting requirements, cost considerations, and agency coordination to ensure a smooth transition from planning through construction. The end result is a completed roadway that enhances connection across a community.
Stormwater Infrastructure and Low Impact Development
An extremely common aspect of roadway engineering involves the inclusion of stormwater infrastructure considerations. While accounting for increased impervious surfaces and polluted runoff, stormwater features reduce flooding and improve water quality for a community.
With new development comes the potential for negative environmental impact, but proper analysis of natural resources can mitigate adverse effects. Existing culverts are notoriously inefficient and are also among the most common barriers to fish passage. Today, culverts are being replaced to protect aquatic habitat, reduce flooding, and preserve water rights for property owners.
An important piece of roadway engineering is consideration of how it facilitates more than just cars. Multimodal design gives communities options for how they get from point A to point B, all while reducing carbon emissions and promoting physical health through active transportation. Emphasizing pedestrian mobility features like pedestrian bridges, protected bike lanes, cross walks, and traffic stripping reduces traffic conflicts for all.
Safety is the top priority of any roadway project. With updated traffic signals and signage, drivers are more aware, creating a safer environment for themselves and pedestrians. As the design of a roadway considers number of lanes and width, control of speed can also be effectively managed.
A healthy transportation network is a diverse transportation network. As roadway projects increase in size, so do opportunities to incorporate multimodal features. This can include accommodating mass transit with new stations, specialized lanes, or connection to adjacent trail systems. All ultimately contribute to traffic calming, creating a more connected community.
From small neighborhood streets to large arterials, each roadway type must be designed with the specific needs of the community in mind. A critical aspect of any design is engaging with the public to ensure buy-in and minimize disruption. The larger the initiative, the more essential public outreach becomes, and each project presents its own unique impacts to the connectivity of the communities it serves.
Types of Roadways and Their Impact on Communities
Different types of roadways serve unique, though connected, purposes in a transportation network. Their design often begins with comprehensive planning efforts which help identify the transportation needs of a community. Potential projects can then be developed with the focus of serving both community and client goals.
Neighborhood Streets
Neighborhood streets are designed with a primary focus on safety and accessibility, often placing an emphasis on pedestrians, cyclists, and access to public transit. The more limited scope of neighborhood street projects makes cost-effective construction strategies vital to fit within local budgets.
With this localized focus on enhancing connectivity and accessibility, neighborhood streets also typically include ADA-compliant sidewalks and crosswalks while speed bumps or curb extensions are among traffic calming measures. This roadway type requires extra attention to minimizing impact on adjacent properties while maximizing the benefits to those who call the neighborhood home, including the public assets that often exist in the area.
Tualatin, OR Adds Safe Routes to School
Among some of the most important improvements that can be made to neighborhood streets are those that create a safer environment for children that play and travel in the area. For many parents at Tualatin Elementary, it was clear that updates to the neighborhood streets could make a real difference for the kids walking and biking to and from school.
As part of Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs, which provides grants for these types of improvements, work on 95th and Avery made a variety of upgrades to enhance pedestrian safety, particularly for the kids of Tualatin Elementary.
Multiple intersections were improved with high visibility striping in crosswalks, rectangular rapid-flashing beacons (RRFB), and other features to create safer pedestrian crossings and reduce conflicts with vehicles. Deficient sidewalks and gaps were replaced to further enhance the pedestrian experience.
Mid-Size Collectors and Corridors
Mid-size collectors and corridors serve as vital connections between neighborhoods and larger roadways. This roadway type supports moderate traffic volumes and often incorporates improvements that enhance transportation operations and facilitate flow between developing areas.
Corridors generally aim to improve access to commercial areas, parks, and transit hubs in response to increasing traffic demand. As part of planning efforts, these improvements are sometimes made in anticipation of future development. The larger scope often involves coordination with utility companies and various agencies, as they can have a substantial impact on not only the community but the surrounding environment.
Silverdale, WA Sees Reduced Congestion and an Enhanced Waterfront
The community of Silverdale had long looked to improve on poor waterfront access. Where the Clear Creek Estuary crosses under Bucklin Hill Road and meets Dyes Inlet, high traffic was common which was especially problematic considering its semi-rural setting. Altogether, the area represented a missed opportunity to create an appealing place for recreation, community connections, and growth for local businesses.
Improvements to Bucklin Hill Road and Bridge changed that. Two additional travel lanes eliminated congestion while new bike lanes and facilities were added where there had been none. Widened sidewalks and new trail connections added to new active transportation opportunities for the community. Extensive public outreach, including the “Scout Your Route” campaign to keep the public informed of closures, minimized disruption while reducing construction duration. These improvements had a direct, broad impact on all community members, including residents at senior living facilities in the area that now benefit from greater accessibility to their local businesses.
Large Arterials and Highways
Large arterials and highways are critical for regional mobility, commerce, and overarching economic development. Linking rural and urban areas, these roadways provide communities of all sizes access to important resources like employment and healthcare in metropolitan centers, while supporting the social and cultural networks between different areas. The scale of large highway upgrades can lead to wider improvements to transit-oriented development that diversify modes of transportation and maximize project value.
These roadways often present unique engineering challenges and draw from multiple funding sources, requiring close coordination with agencies to ensure regulatory compliance. As long-term, high-visibility projects, managing timelines and minimizing construction impacts is essential to minimizing disruptions that, at this scale, can be especially costly. This includes effectively communicating project updates with the surrounding community through informational websites, local representatives, and other channels to provide clarity and achieve buy-in.
Salem, OR Supports Rapid Growth and Underserved Areas
In a historically underserved area of Salem, Oregon, where 36% of parcels are underutilized, the McGilchrist Complete Street Project is designed to enhance business development, job creation, and multimodal transportation options for members of the community. It’s part of a 20-year vision for economic growth as well as transportation safety and environmental sustainability.
Considering the large and lasting impact of this work on the community, it was imperative to include them. Extensive stakeholder engagement went above and beyond, working directly with property owners, businesses, and local agencies to ensure the project addressed real community needs. These efforts led to the incorporation of refinements such as the protected cycle track and intersection realignments.
Based on feedback from public outreach, 74% of the corridor features protected bike lanes and new sidewalks. The design aims to significantly improve pedestrian accessibility while minimizing pedestrian-vehicle conflicts, resulting in fewer severe crashes and lives lost. The inclusion of $15 million of stormwater infrastructure upgrades also means this work plays a critical role in not only reducing future flooding for the community but improving habitat for fish.
Making the Complete Connection
Roadways are essential to creating vibrant, connected, and equitable communities. Because of their widespread impact, roadway projects of any size involve a diverse set of considerations to ensure that impact is comprehensive and long lasting. Through thoughtful planning, collaboration, and public engagement, Otak’s multidisciplinary teams take a cohesive approach to designing more connected communities that address current and future needs.
With the mission of advancing the science around urban ecosystems, the 23rd Annual Urban Ecology and Conservation Symposium took place featuring a presentation detailing work on the Springwater Wetlands Restoration project. Project lead, Rose Horton, presented alongside the client, Portland Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) and the City of Portland, to discuss the variety of ways improvements to this watershed are designed to improve the local habitat and surrounding community.
“At a really well attended conference, it was great to be part of all the wildlife research and knowledge that was shared… it’s important to show how restoring wetlands also protects people with solutions like naturally improving flood storage.”
– Rose Horton, PE|Team Leader, WNR
What is the Urban Ecology and Conservation Symposium?
The event is hosted by the Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium (UERC) of Portland/Vancouver and was held at Portland State University. Made up of members from educational institutions, state agencies, local governments, and non-profits, the UERC offers professionals opportunities to gather and share knowledge about urban ecology. Several speakers across a range of organizations gave presentations to share knowledge and ecological data with a focus on building communities in the region.
Insights from the Springwater Wetlands Restoration
Among the presentations given on ‘Restoration and Monitoring’ at the 2025 UERC was a unique, 70-acre urban wetland enhancement project that aimed to address decades of attempts to reduce flooding in the Portland area. Johnson Creek is one of the few free-flowing streams in Portland and has a long history of nuisance and catastrophic flooding. The restoration of the Springwater Wetlands focused on reducing that flooding while also enhancing habitat and improving community amenities for the city.
Co-presenting with client representatives, Rose detailed how this restoration work removed non-native fill and improved flood storage to protect neighborhoods from Johnson Creek and advance the city’s goals. This work also added more connections to the Johnson Creek trail system, including educational signs and site features made from WPA rock that connect the area’s history with its natural environment.
The Otak project team and client at the 2025 ACEC WA Engineering Excellence Awards Banquet.
This year’s American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Washington Awards Banquet celebrated a variety of projects from the region that improve communities through innovative engineering solutions. We’re proud to share that Otak’s NE 40th Stormwater Trunk Extension and Water Quality Facility project was honored with a Silver Award for Successful Fulfillment of Client/Owner Needs, highlighting the exceptional work and the dedication of our stormwater planning and environmental teams to collaborate closely with our client partners.
In further developing the City of Redmond’s stormwater infrastructure, this project stood out for a design that ensures water quality for people and natural habitat alike, while encouraging investment in the redevelopment of the area.
About Phase 1: Street Stormwater Trunk Extension
Redmond’s proactive approach to stormwater management included extension of a stormwater trunkline to a new direct outfall into Lake Sammamish to accommodate future redevelopment without the need for large on-site flow control facilities. This allows for higher density in a growing urban area around the new Redmond Technology Light Rail Station.
At the upstream end of the trunkline basin, the NE 40th Street Water Quality Facility was established to treat highly polluted runoff from 19 acres of a high-traffic roadway area. The new retrofit treatment site includes a unique leaf-shaped biofiltration facility that is viewable by pedestrians and transit center users at a gateway node within the city.
Congratulations to our team, client, and project partners for their hard work and dedication! We look forward to continuing our mission of delivering innovative and sustainable built solutions.
This October, the annual Sustaining Colorado Watersheds Conference took place with the overarching theme of ‘Flowing Through Change.’ With that focus, attendees explored the relentless nature of change when it comes to work on natural systems. As part of the conference lineup, Ethan Ader (Otak Fluvial Geomorphologist) presented on how the evolving practice of adaptive management is addressing challenges to create lasting desired outcomes in the field of environmental science.
“Every opportunity to share data on adaptive management and monitoring helps the industry move closer to creating standardization for this type of work, so we’ll able to draw large scale conclusions.”
– Ethan Ader, Fluvial Geomorphologist
What is the Sustaining Colorado Watersheds Conference?
Watersheds represent some of our most valuable natural resources. In partnership between Water Education Colorado, the Colorado Riparian Association and the Colorado Watershed Assembly, the Sustaining Colorado Watersheds Conference takes place each year, bringing together environmental professionals to advance best practices in work on natural systems. With the goal of expanding cooperation and collaboration throughout the state in natural resource conservation, protection, and enhancement, the event engages participants on topical issues facing the practice. Along with a valuable opportunity to learn about emerging practices, the conference also facilitates important connections between industry professionals.
Sharing Lessons from an Adaptive Management Plan to Improve Industry Standardization
In addition to discussing ideas and networking, the Sustaining Colorado Watersheds Conference also explores real world examples of how approaches are being applied in the field. This year, Ethan Ader was there to do just that with his presentation titled Preparing for Inevitable Change Through Adaptive Management and Monitoring Along St. Vrain Creek. By sharing a look at an adaptive management plan and demonstrating how commonly competing interests don’t have to be at odds with one another in this type of work, he also aimed to help advance the standardization of this practice in the industry.
“[Through conferences like this] it’s important to be able to communicate two successful examples of where fish passage and water delivery can go hand in hand.”
– Ethan Ader, Fluvial Geomorphologist
While walking through the process for adaptive management, which involves ongoing monitoring that allows for responsive decision-making and project updates, Ethan detailed how the practice is being applied at two fish passage projects constructed along St. Vrain Creek. Fish passage projects can come with the negative perception that they can adversely impact water delivery to properties in the project area, but with data from these sites, Ethan demonstrated how this stream was performing as designed without interrupting flow to other entities.
Two years of data presented from St. Vrain Creek show that project goals continue to be successful while, simultaneously, ongoing conversations with ditch companies have ensured their needs are also being met. With this information, the project team is ultimately able to contribute towards advancing adaptive management in the industry. As the approach is more broadly adopted and as more data is collected, the creation of standardization will improve the efficacy of these projects and their impact on community resilience and aquatic habitat.
While Ethan notes there is still a lot of work to do on this front, with a lot of overlapping and reinforcing ideas, the Sustaining Colorado Watersheds Conference represented another step in the right direction and he’s happy to do his part in presenting this use case.
In leading the next generation of stream restoration professionals, Gary Wolff (Otak Senior Hydraulics Engineer) taught a four-day-course this fall on, “steady open channel flow modeling emphasizing stream restoration applications.” It’s part of a stream restoration certificate program at Portland State University and is something he’s been lending his expertise to for the better part of the past decade.
“I love to teach and mentor young people because I’ve been in the business for over 40 years, and it’s a big benefit to our business and the work we do because it increases its exposure.”
– Gary Wolff, Senior Hydraulics Engineer
As a member of our environmental team, Gary has worked on countless projects aimed at restoring streams to their natural state, including aquatic habitat and fish passage. A large part of those efforts has centered around being an industry leader in the application of the Hydrologic Engineering Center – River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) hydraulic modeling software, which he provides insight into as part of this program.
What is the Stream Restoration Certificate Program?
Infrastructure development throughout history has often changed riverine systems from their natural state. Consequently, negative impacts to the natural environment, property, and habitat have been a common result. With growing knowledge around these impacts, efforts are increasingly being made to restore streams to their more natural state, adding resilience to both the environment and surrounding communities.
Co-sponsored by Portland State University and River Restoration Northwest, the Stream Restoration Certificate program positions prospective environmental engineers to better design future stream restoration projects. The ability to model the river and stream systems as part of these projects is a significant piece of that puzzle, and it’s the focus of Gary’s course. As an introduction to the one-dimensional capabilities of the HEC-RAS software, Gary’s course gives river restoration practitioners with backgrounds in geoscience, the life sciences, and engineering the ability to make reliable interpretations of the outputs from these models. Designed as a hands-on experience with the software, it covers modeling for a variety of situations commonly encountered when restoring rivers. This includes a focus on hydraulic modeling of streams with added habitat features (e.g. large wood, boulders), as well as floodplain permitting applications.
Otak is celebrating Engineers Week by sitting down for coffee with Sean Clark, senior project manager and passionate engineer! Check out the video and the transcription below:
“My name is Sean Clark, and I’m a structural engineer.”
What is your role on the structural team?
“I work a lot with architects. I also work a lot with the civil department, and water and natural resources – we do a whole lot of retaining walls on the side of roads, so I work with the transportation department as well.”
“The structure is basically anything in the built environment, and that encompasses different people at Otak, so it’s a wide variety.”
What excites you about the field of engineering?
“What excites me the most I think is the amount of technology and new types of construction. I get really excited when somebody’s like, ‘Ooh, we can use titanium rods to strengthen this girder.’ You know, something different.”
“Elegance in design is efficiency, you know? So, I take pride in being able to give an elegant design to somebody’s problem. One of the interesting ones that I’ve got recently is that we’re doing a rain shed in Hawaii. So, one – it’s Hawaii, and two – the seismic there is just crazy, it’s built on the side of a volcano. It’s really interesting to see how my part is just structures, but to get the water to all these people involves a lot of different disciplines.”
What do you enjoy most about being an engineer?
“I think what I love about engineering is that every day I create. It takes a lot of imagination, it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of knowledge, but there’s just nothing better.”
We’re delighted to share some additional award wins – this time for our project work in the Puget Sound region. The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Washington has awarded two projects from our bridge engineering team with Silver and Gold-level recognition!
ACEC Washington represents the gold standard for the business of engineering in Washington state, creating an environment that encourages quality, safe, impactful, and sustainable solutions for both the built and natural environments. They are the leading organization for promoting engineering companies through professional knowledge and exceptional services for communities across the state, and we’re grateful to be recognized on behalf of our teams who accomplished this award-winning work.
Learn more about each winning project on their respective project pages, and hear directly from our clients on what makes these wins so special.
Dungeness River Bridge – Best in State Gold Award: Social, Economic, and Sustainable Design Considerations
As the firm providing lead design consulting services, bridge engineering, architecture and landscape architecture, and building structural engineering, our approach to this project was creating a space where critical infrastructure and the environment’s natural surroundings intersect. This created a meaningful and useful finished product for the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe based on their input and desired outcomes:
“Aesthetically and functionally, the bridge is superb. We are thrilled with the innovative wishbone design, and the flow of traffic merges and splits seamlessly. The Tribe routinely receives rave reviews about the bridge from trail and Nature Center users.”
– Randy Johnson, Habitat Program Manager for the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe
Willapa Littell Bridge – Best in State Silver Award: Successful Fulfillment of Owner/Client Needs
As prime consultant on this project – Otak performed a variety of essential services including project management, survey, environmental services, bridge and civil engineering, landscape architecture, stormwater management, and CMI work. The challenge for the client was mitigating safety hazards thanks to a highly popular trail combined with a dangerous at-grade crossing on a high-speed state highway while addressing aesthetic concerns among community members. With special thanks to our partners in overcoming speed bumps on the way to final delivery, the project now stands as a testament to innovative engineering that not only functions well, but is also a sight to behold:
“Constructing a 250’ span bridge over a busy highway with little to no lay down/staging area was a challenging endeavor. Otak produced a design that satisfied permit requirements, design requirements, and was aesthetically pleasing, definitely exceeding our expectations.”
– Tim Bell, Project Manager for the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission
View the rest of the winners on the Seattle DJC’s official website here, along with their write up on the Dungeness Bridge and river restoration here!
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In leading the next generation of stream restoration professionals, Gary Wolff (Otak Senior Hydraulics Engineer) taught a four-day-course this fall on, “steady open channel flow modeling emphasizing stream restoration applications.” It’s part of a 
