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ANDREWS REC PARK
TOWN BRANCH
(July-August 2005)
Project Design: Buck
Engineering
Primary Contractor: West
Contracting
The Town of Andrews
owns a recreation park with two baseball fields and a swimming pool just
off of Main Street in Andrews. Town Branch forms the northern
border of the property.
The Andrews Rec Park project is
situated along a 969-linear foot reach of Town Branch, just upstream of
its confluence with the Valley River. Initially the project
involved five landowners, however Cherokee County purchased the land
across from the Town of
Andrews' property in 2006. A permanent conservation easement was
placed on both sides of the restored channel by Cherokee County in 2006;
the existing park features were exempted from the restrictions.
Conditions of Site Prior to Project
The land on
one side of Town Branch in the project reach is the Andrews Recreational
Park, the other is currently in agriculture. Prior to
construction, soil was being lost
from streambanks along the project reach at an estimated rate of 96 tons
per year. Large chunks of bank sloughed off into the stream and the soil
was carried about half a mile down into the Valley River where it was
deposited on a riffle. Erosion was threatening a baseball
field at the park (the stream was eroding under the outfield fence) and
the scoreboard of a second field. The stream was both laterally and
vertically unstable due to historic channelization, a lack of adequate
riparian buffer, and an increase in
unmitigated stormwater runoff over the 10-15 years prior. The stream bed
lacked diversity and was mostly a run with very few pools and riffles.
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Before |
After |
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Instream Technologies Applied
A
restoration project was designed for this location in 2004 using funds
from Phase I of HRWC's Valley River Watershed Restoration Project; funding
to construct the design was provided by the Clean Water Management Trust
Fund in 2005. The project changed the
dimension, pattern and profile over the entire existing 970-foot reach;
the new channel is 1,129 linear feet. The estimate of soil loss
following project completion is 31 tons per year, a 67% reduction. Instream
structures such as cross vanes, root wads, and constructed riffles were
used to stabilize stream banks and improve aquatic habitat. Also,
erosion control matting and live stakes were used to improve bank
stability.
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One Year
Later (2006)
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Three Years
Later (2008)
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Linear Feet of Stream Restoration:
969 feet
Linear Feet of Riparian Buffer
Restored and Protected:
2,260 feet (the new channel is 1,129 linear feet)
Native trees and
shrubs were used to restore the riparian buffer (30 feet wide) along
both sides of Town Branch.
Tree species
planted included Red Maple, River Birch, Sycamore, Green Ash, Tulip Tree, Silky Dogwood, Sweetgum, Elderberry, Alder, and Persimmon.
HRWC is working with Cherokee County and Andrews Valley Initiative to construct
a greenway trail along the outer
portion of the riparian buffer. |
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Monitoring
In June
2006, the NCSU Water Quality Group evaluated this restoration project as
part of an effort to establish an evaluation protocol for stream
restoration projects and to provide the Clean Water Management Trust
Fund with information about recently funded restoration projects across
the state. Eighteen projects were assessed as part of this effort
and the average project score was 122.4 out of 168 points. This
project on Town Branch received a score of 122.9, slightly above
average!
Click here
to download the individual project report for this site:
NCSU
Water Quality Group's "Evaluation of the Stream Restoration at Town
Branch" (PDF) |
