Geyserville Bridge on the Russian River. This emergency job is necessary to protect the bridge this winter – but the Russian River is prime coho, chinook and steelhead water – and standard , resistive, RIPRAP, revetment-type protection was not acceptable to the Resource Agencies. They all could agree on a solution, if carefully constructed, that involved “clean” self-launching rock (no excavated rip rap keyway needed), redirective Rock Vanes (remember vanes and bendway weirs produce superior aquatic and substrate habitat), and planting with willow and cottonwood (Live Siltation and Pole Planting). These techniques are all “spelled out” in the 2005 NCHRP Report 544, Environmentally-Sensitive Channel and Bank Protection Methods.

Day 4: shows the “staging road” which does double duty as a huge structural fill section in case the self-launching doesn’t hold up.

The access also helps us realign the stream – we really need to get that “hook out”.

Day 6: Carefully backfilling to not “strand any fish” was a very important element. The successful implementation assured that no electro fishing or handling of fish was necessary. The biologist also had to ensure no salmonids were in the reach.

But the true watershed moment came when we started building the Rock vanes, shown here Vane 1, upstream and Vane 3 of 4, downstream. Just look how effective in re-directing the river. Remember, this re-direction is what we want, so the river flows through the bridge, not into abutment!!