Sustainability Archives - Page 6 of 7

Tracy Emmanuel Helps Rivers Run Free

A fluvial geomorphologist by education, Tracy Emmanuel in Otak’s Colorado office has recently been promoted to Business Unit Leader for Otak’s Water & Natural Resources Division in Colorado. In this role, she will be responsible for leading a team of scientists and engineers to identify and win work, develop and coach her team members, and continue to apply her technical and project management abilities in the execution of projects. Matt Marshall, Regional Business Development Manager at Otak said, “Tracy is a triple threat. She’s super smart, she’s really good with clients, and is a genuine and caring leader and coach for her team.”

Tracy did not find a love of rivers right away. She first loved math and actually chose her college based solely on her desire to run cross country. However, an injury changed her trajectory and she found that college opened her eyes and her aspirations to a career with rivers.

“My geology teacher gave me a book of hydrology for engineers and it really resonated with me,” Tracy said further emphasizing that spending her free time whitewater kayaking instead of running sealed the deal.

Once hooked, Tracy went on to graduate school where she was able to work with world-renowned geomorphologist, Ellen Wohl. More than 17 years later, Tracy has built a solid reputation in her own right having worked on projects in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Washington. Her expertise includes floodplain reconnection, stable channel, and fish habitat design, as well as flood recovery and water diversion improvement planning and design.

In 2014, Tracy, along with a handful of colleagues from a previous firm, joined Otak and began their work on several projects along St. Vrain Creek, Lefthand Creek, and the Poudre and Big Thompson Rivers mitigating the massive destruction of the 2013 Colorado flooding triggered by a 1000 year rain event.

“The flooding in the Front Range raised the profile of why geomorphology is so important. Rivers aren’t going to stay where they are. They are going to move and it’s critical to understand that potential for adjustment,” Tracy said. She continued to highlight how that experience proved that natural riverine systems that can retain some of their natural adjustment processes, as opposed to human cut channels and structural solutions, serve to better protect people, property, and the environment.

Recently Tracy has been leading the Otak team on the Godfrey Ditch Diversion replacement project on the Middle South Platte River in Weld County, Colorado, taking it from conceptual design to construction. The federally funded project is designed to reduce sediment transport disruptions, improve maintenance requirements, limit damage potential in future floods, and enhance aquatic and riparian habitats. Following a lengthy alternative analysis, the team decided to move the point of diversion upstream 900 feet to a more stable location, replacing the 9-foot failing structure with a 3-foot-tall bladder dam structure, fish passage ramp, and increased efficiencies in ditch infrastructure. Tracy recently spoke of the work Otak is doing in this area at the Poudre Riverfest.

ENR Recognizes Pringle Creek with a 2020 Regional Award of Merit

Otak has been selected by the Engineering News-Record as an Award of Merit winner for the Pringle Creek Demolition and Stream Restoration project. A virtual ceremony will be held Thursday, December 10 to recognize project winners.

This project was performed for the City of Salem and involved removing a vacant concrete structure and opening a 600-foot linear stream corridor which was designed to appear as if it had always been there. The work improved the aesthetics of the area and added a natural area for nearby residents and future park and trail users. It also improved water quality and increased fish passage.

The size and scope of the project necessitated coordination among several firms including Pacific Habitat Services who was key in obtaining environmental permits, and Geo Design Inc. who assisted with the management of contaminated soils. The prime contractor relied on two key subcontractors; Cascade Shoring and Abiqua Landscape.

Water and Natural Resources Team Wraps Up Derry Dell Creek Restoration

Otak recently completed its work on the rehabilitation of the East Fork Derry Dell Creek in Tigard, Oregon. The City of Tigard hired Otak under its on-call contract.

Project manager and principal in charge Kevin Timmins, was joined by Scott Banker who is certified in erosion and sediment control, and Nick Cook, PhD, who provided engineering design for the project.

The creek, on private property, suffered from increased urban runoff that incised the channel and was causing severe erosion along the creek banks and scour around an existing stormwater outfall, so much so that the trunkline sanitary sewer and several laterals had been exposed. Otak was hired to reconstruct about 900 feet of the stream channel, rebury the sewer line, and restore the floodplain connectivity.

Design and permitting for the project started in April 2018 and permits were received in October 2019. To protect fish species construction had to wait for the next state-approved in-water work window of Summer 2020. Construction began mid-summer and was completed in just four weeks.

The old stream channel had reached depths up to six feet due to the excessive erosion so it was filled in and a gravel streambed was built at the upstream end. The stream channel was relocated at the downstream end to what the engineers believe was the original location of the stream. A mix of rock was used in the new channel to resist erosion and the channel was built with variations to mimic a real streambed and create different habitat conditions. Three trees that had fallen across the creek were cut and reused in the floodplain and stream to provide additional habitat enhancements and channel stability.

The team specified the use of Beaver Dam Analogs (BDA), designed under the same concept as naturally occurring beaver dams, as a cost-effective and efficient means to slow the water and collect sediment to build back the stream bed elevation so it can better access the floodplain.

Otak’s expert water and natural resources team left the stream in a healthier condition while stabilizing the adjacent slopes and protecting the sanitary sewer.

With the stream completed, the City of Tigard is moving forward this coming fall with revegetation of the adjacent stream corridor and wetland areas.

Ryan Makie Keeps Fish Swimming Freely

Fish play an important role ecologically, culturally, and economically in the northwest, so restoring stream habitat to offset the effects of urbanization is crucial work. Otak’s Vancouver office is fortunate to have the skills of Ryan Makie, leader for the Water and Natural Resources Group, to oversee its growing portfolio of fish passage and habitat improvement projects.

While Ryan started school in a typical civil engineering capacity, two internships sparked his interest in water and natural resources, work which he found energized him.

Fast forward many years later and that passion has only grown. “I’m restoring fish passages at road crossings so fish can get through to access upstream habitat. Providing access is one part of restoring our fish populations. In addition to the ecological and economic importance, fish are a first food for the tribal nations in the Pacific Northwest. I get immense job satisfaction knowing I’ve played a role in restoring that resource,” he said.

Two recent projects have put Ryan in the driver’s seat to replace culverts, restore fish passage, and improve stream health.

The Manley Road project in a rural area outside of Battle Ground, Washington, involved the replacement of 4 culverts and the restoration of a substantial reach of the creek to allow a freer flow of Manley Creek, uninhibited fish passage, and improved habitat conditions.

The existing culverts were small, perched, and frequently clogged with debris. Additionally, the creek was too close to the roadway in some locations resulting in an oversteepened roadway embankment. Otak was hired to oversee the stream, structural and environmental components of the project, with Ryan serving as discipline lead for the stream work. The Otak team worked closely with the County who took on the stormwater and roadway portions of the project.

Ryan was the principal in charge for the Emergency Culvert Repair on the Pacific Coast Highway located near La Center, Oregon. During a heavy rainstorm, the highway washed out due to an undersized culvert that became clogged with debris. The County quickly closed the road and declared an emergency, which Ryan explained allowed them to move forward with a quick replacement. In this case, the County requested that a fish passable culvert be designed and constructed right away instead of adding a temporary non-passable culvert as is often the approach for emergency replacements.

The permitting for a project of this type would normally require a lengthy road closure, however, the emergency declaration allowed for addressing the permitting after the fact which relies heavily on close coordination between the designer and permitting agencies. Ryan’s team was the preferred choice of the County due to their rapport with the local permitting agencies that stemmed from years of successful stream-related projects. “We coordinated with agencies in the field, assessed the geomorphic conditions, agreed upon the culvert type, put together a plan, and had a culvert back in place within 45 days. That’s impressive since typical culvert replacements take closer to a year to complete,” Ryan said.

Otak Offsetting Carbon Emissions; Moving Toward Carbon-Neutral Status

Otak’s commitment to sustainability includes efforts to offset carbon emissions and move toward becoming a carbon-neutral company. Achieving carbon neutrality will be a two-step process and we are nearing completion on the first step, which involved quantifying our carbon emissions from 2019 and purchasing carbon offsets. We have partnered with a local organization, the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF), in this regard.

Carbon Offsets provide businesses with a verified method to balance their unavoidable carbon footprint by directly supporting projects that are proven to reduce carbon emissions. Purchasing offsets provides funding for projects that reduce greenhouse gas pollution and helps to ensure continued innovation and development of carbon reduction projects and technology. We recognize that while purchasing carbon offsets won’t eliminate the carbon that we create, it will help mitigate the greenhouse gases that are an unavoidable part of doing business.

To offset our emissions from the 2019 year, we compiled data for our airline miles, office operations, employee commutes, and work-related trips. The GO Operations Committee worked with BEF to select offset projects that were local to our bioregion in the Pacific Northwest, to keep our impact local since most of our emissions were created locally. Otak will be supporting three projects that include: avoided deforestation in Washington State, stream restoration that will benefit local orca populations through the PTP (Promise to the Pod Campaign), and a clean energy futures program aimed at providing equal education access to students in the clean energy field.

The second step, a carbon-neutral certification, will involve a third-party review of our offset purchases from BEF, methods of calculation to verify the data, and reduction plans. The third-party review will also help us to understand where we can make further reductions and minimize the need for offsets. Offsetting should be the final piece after reducing our total emissions. Look for more communication about our certification progress throughout the coming year.

We want to thank the GO Operations Committee for spearheading this effort that is setting Otak apart and making headway toward our commitments to sustainability and resiliency in our communities.

Work Underway to Restore Fish Passages in WA

Otak, working as a sub-consultant to HNTB Corporation, is providing design and engineering services on an ambitious project for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to renovate or replace up to 450 culverts and restore safe fish passages throughout the state’s Northwest Region. The project is in response to a mandate by the federal government. The current goal is to complete 450 culverts in two phases, the first phase is to complete Preliminary Hydraulic Designs (PHDs) for all the culverts within the next three years, and to complete the final designs and construction within the next ten years.

In 2018, native tribes in Washington won a lawsuit against the state for allowing construction of more than 2000 culverts across State roads that, according to the lawsuit, diminished the number of spawning fish below the amount that was assured to be protected in the Treaty between the State and the Tribes. The culverts were constructed decades ago when the science on fish migration was preliminary so while the state, offices of WSDOT, Fish and Wildlife and Parks, complied with state and federal guidelines for the construction at the time, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the tribes that the culverts were now acting as barriers. The court concluded that 2,000 culverts must be listed as a high priority and corrected by 2030.

Otak was one of the firms chosen to work on the HNTB team because it is one of few engineering firms with the breadth of skills to be able to perform this work and has the capacity to get the job done quickly. The Otak team is being led by Russ Gaston, Principal and Project Manager. Otak’s Stream Design Engineers are playing a crucial role in the hydrologic design that must meet the project’s criteria and be in compliance with state and federal regulations. In addition, Otak is applying its experience with MicroStation, the CAD software WSDOT uses and is a unique skill among engineering firms.

Otak has initiated scoping on to complete PHDs for ten of the fish passage culverts, to have them completed within three months after WSDOT provides surveys of each location. The team will determine if a more efficiently designed culvert, a bridge, or natural streaming will be the best solution at each location. The culverts, generally placed under roadways, need to allow a flow of water that isn’t too fast or too shallow or results in a waterfall at either end.

“The job is not simply to replace culverts but to look at alternatives such as avoiding passage near a road, using bridges, or adding water passages that mimic natural streams,” Gaston states. Otak’s Stream Design Engineers are conducting a preliminary hydrologic design report to examine the movement of water and overall watershed sustainability to determine the best way forward for each culvert. Each Fish Barrier Culvert replacement is estimated to have a design cost of around $400,000.

Pringle Creek Project Restores Waterway and Increases Fish Passage

Otak has recently completed the design and structural and civil engineering work on the Pringle Creek Demolition and Stream Restoration project in Salem, Oregon. The project is just one of several that continue to advance the City’s vision, which has been on-going since the 1980s, to turn its waterfront from previous industrial use to public space and an area for economic redevelopment.

The City of Salem hired Otak to complete design on the project within a short timeframe. Otak relied on many of its skilled employees to complete the required work including Kevin Timmins, PE – Principal; Scott Nettleton, PE – Structural Lead; Greg Mines, PE – Structural Engineering; Nick Cook, EI, PhD – Stream Reconstruction Design; Gary Wolff, PE, D.WRE – Hydraulic Modeling; Scott Banker, RLA, CESCL – Construction Observation; and Mandy Flett – Construction Assistant. Suulutaaq Inc. won the construction bid and performed well as the Prime Contractor on a challenging site.

The site of this project had been home to a mill, most recently a paper mill, for more than 100 years. After the mill closed the City partnered with the owner to have the building removed. Removing the building was fairly straightforward. The challenge was to demolish the building’s substructure that sat within the 100-year floodplain of the Willamette River in the waterway known as Pringle Creek and then reconstruct the creek to a more naturally functioning stream for fish passage.

Sequencing plans were prepared to incrementally remove the building, construct the embankment, and maintain a stable wall configuration during and after construction. A carefully crafted staging plan for demolition and stream reconstruction was required to maintain the existing fish ladder, convey stream flows through the site, and protect the stream from sediment and falling demolition debris.

Otak used ground-penetrating radar to scan the old concrete for the presence of rebar reinforcement and then designed an embankment fill to buttress the remaining wall and, once graded, to provide a location for a future trail connection and space to incorporate urban furnishings and fixtures.

Otak was originally contracted to provide riprap stabilization of Pringle Creek, however, hydraulic conditions made riprap a questionable solution, as the use of riprap was found to require as much effort and expense as reconstructing the stream. The team needed to engineer and construct a natural feature to make it look like it had always been there. A combination of large boulders, trees with root wads intact, riparian plantings, and channel topography were introduced to create habitat complexity and hydraulic diversity to provide fish passage, and access to the remaining 15-square miles of the Pringle Creek Watershed for migratory salmon.

The size and scope of the project necessitated coordination among several firms including

Pacific Habitat Services who was key in obtaining environmental permits, and Geo Design Inc. who assisted with the management of contaminated soils. The prime contractor relied on two key subcontractors; Cascade Shoring and Abiqua Landscape.

While the goal of the project was to remove a run-down and unsafe structure over the stream, the end result was improved water quality, increased fish passage, and a desirable gateway and future multi-use trail connection between downtown Salem and Riverfront Park. Otak looks forward to an opportunity to help complete the associated trail project in the future, and to continue it’s working relationship with the City of Salem.

Team Otak Joins The Bike More Challenge

UPDATE

October 5, 2020–The Otak team participating in the 2020 Bike More Challenge, sponsored by The Street Trust, won 3rd place for mid-sized companies. Placing 3rd shattered Otak’s 25th ranking last year! The award is determined by points earned for days of participation, combined miles covered on a bicycle, and the encouragement given to others to ride bikes. Captained by Rose Horton, and led by the GO Committee, Otak had 17 people on its team with participants from all Otak office locations (Portland, Washington, and Colorado).

June 11, 2020–Otak has again put forward a team for the Bike More Challenge sponsored by The Street Trust. Held throughout the month of June, the event is designed to encourage biking as a safe commuting alternative, as well as a means to increase personal health and the health of the planet. Riders sign up, log their rides in an easy app, and compete with teams and individuals across the state to win prizes.

The 2020 Bike More Challenge marks the fifth year that Otak has participated, but new this year, employees from all Otak locations in Oregon, Washington, and Colorado can participate and log their miles as part of the Otak Team. “This is a great way to build camaraderie and show that our people are dedicated to sustainability not just in their work but also in their personal lives,” says Rose Horton, 2020 Team Captain. What better way to enjoy the spring weather, get some exercise, and still comply with social distancing guidelines? Even if biking is done on an indoor exercycle, those miles still count. Last year Otak was ranked 25th for miles logged and the goal is to exceed that number this year.

Prizes for the challenge are available in the following categories: Most Miles Female, Most Miles New Female, Most Miles Male, Most Miles New Male, Most Miles Non-Binary, Most Miles New Non-Binary, Top Encourager, Top Overall Rider and Team Captain of the Year Award!

Registration is completely FREE. Visit https://bikemorechallenge.com for details on how to sign up and download the mobile app. Be sure to sign up to the Otak team! All miles logged through the end of June need to be entered by July 15th.

The GO Committee is heading up this event – feel free to contact Rose Horton or Li Alligood in Portland and Madeline Woods in Louisville with questions.

Smith Island Estuary Restoration Project Wins APWA Project of the Year

Otak is pleased to announce the Smith Island Estuary Restoration Project won both the American Public Works Association (APWA) National and Washington State Chapter, 2020 Project of the Year Award in the category of Environment: $25 million to $75 million. Entered projects are judged on construction management, environmental protection, safety performance, and community relations.

Otak’s Redmond and Everett team provided support to the Snohomish County Public Works Department who managed construction for the project that reestablished tidal marsh conditions to more than 330 acres of the Snohomish River estuary. Work was completed in November 2018.

The project included breaching 4,510 feet of dike to restore tidal flow to the estuary, reconnecting 18,480 feet of tidal channels, and creating 10,994 feet of new channel habitat, and a 1.2-mile new setback dike to protect public and private infrastructure including agriculture and highway. Funding came, in part, through $20.8 million in state and federal grants.

Over the last century, the Snohomish River Estuary had become disconnected from tidal influence due to the installation of 40 dikes, years of deforestation, and urbanization. This altered the functioning of the landscape and caused a tremendous loss of juvenile salmon production. In 1999, Puget Sound Chinook was listed as an endangered species, sparking Snohomish County to acquire 415 acres on Smith Island for habitat restoration. Those efforts took five years. Over the next eight years, the design, permitting, and securing of funds commenced allowing construction to begin in 2015.

The work was done in two phases to accommodate two years of consolidation settlement and subsequent placement of drain pipes in the levee, and to account for tidal fluctuations, weather delays, winter construction suspensions, and work-date restrictions to protect aquatic life.

In Phase 1, Scarsella Brothers constructed the infrastructure to protect surrounding public and private development and initiated restoration of the marsh. For Phase 2, Orion Marine Contractors connected 3.5 miles of tidal channels and installed 42 engineered wood structures to facilitate channel formation and provide cover for juvenile salmon.

Otak is proud to have been involved in the Smith Island Estuary Restoration Project. The benefits from this restoration effort will help bring back several endangered species of salmon contributing more than 30 percent of the Snohomish estuary acreage restoration target that was established in the federally-adopted Chinook salmon recovery plan for the Snohomish Basin. Smith Island now can support up to 250,000 juvenile salmon each year and provides public access to water recreation, walking trails, and wildlife viewing areas, as well as enhanced aquatic habitat and water quality. In addition, Smith Island is an important stopover on the regional flight corridor for migratory birds flying between Alaska, Mexico, and South America.

Otak’s Western Washington SMAP Report

Posted on May 6, 2020March 29, 2023 by OTAK Team

In December 2019, Otak surveyed staff from 26 Western Washington’s Phase II municipal stormwater permittees to assess their preparedness to develop an effective Stormwater Management Action Plan.

Under the 2019-2024 NPDES permit’s SMAP requirement, cities and counties will need to develop a capital improvement program specifically to improve the water quality of their rivers, lakes, and streams—a first for many of the permittees.

The study’s results are highlighted in Otak’s white paper “How Prepared Are Phase II Western Washington Jurisdictions to Create Stormwater Management Action Plans?” and covers:
* how well SMAP requirements are understood,
* how stormwater management is communicated between departments, and
* what resources can help permittees reach compliance.