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Photo courtesy of Chelan Concrete
A low-level outlet structure with two 60-inch-diameter pipes, shown here, will provide year-round water flow through the Chelan River canyon, from Lake Chelan to the Columbia River.

Chelan River project

Location: Chelan Falls

Owner/developer: Chelan County Public Utility District

Project team: Goodfellow Bros., general and concrete contractor; Anchor QEA, architect and structural engineer; Chelan Concrete, ready-mix supplier




The Chelan River project was designed to improve salmon habitat along a half-mile stretch of river channel next to the Chelan PUD Hydroelectric Project.

The $16 million project, completed in 2009, contains 2,750 cubic yards of concrete material. Its four major concrete components include a low-level outlet structure at the conveyance canal pump station, a hydraulic control structure, a conveyance canal from the pump station to the control structure, and a second outlet structure at the other end of the conveyance canal.

Another major concrete component is located at the outlet penstock of the Lake Chelan Dam in nearby Chelan, which consists of two 60-inch-diameter pipes and control valves. The structure will provide year-round water flow through the Chelan River canyon, from Lake Chelan to the Columbia River.

Water flow through the salmon-habitat channel will be provided by the new pump station and the conveyance canal, which runs from the hydroelectric generating facility upstream to the gravity-operated hydraulic control structure located at the head of the channel.

The control structure will provide pumped water to the salmon-habitat channel and send additional water to the overflow-spill channel. Both channels merge below the hydroelectric generating facility and then flow into the Columbia River.

The control structure consists of large boulders placed two to three layers deep, imbedded in 800 cubic yards of concrete with an impermeable membrane. The concrete was placed with a pump truck to lock the boulders together, along with rebar that penetrated the impermeable membrane to lock it to the concrete.



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