Kiewit Infrastructure Co. hired FlyWater to complete river restoration and construction along CO HWY7. FlyWater filled the role of lead river constructors throughout the South St. Vrain Canyon with rock structure work, habitat placement, and willow plantings. Restoration in several reaches of the canyon included completely rebuilding the river channel and overbanks from the ground up in areas where the river had been shifted to construct roadways with safeguards to protect against future flooding events.

FlyWater took a “layered” approach to this project and rebuilding the river; with initial mass grading, building the channel with a natural mixture of substrate sizes, armoring bank lines, and installing “finished” rock and large wood material structures. Water control and coffering was utilized in several reaches of this project area. One reach in particular where this was utilized was to “flip” the river to a new location. By constructing coffers the bulk of the new channel was able to be built in the dry and then finishing touches added once flows were moved to the newly constructed channel. When this flip was performed FlyWater also ensured the fish in the old channel were rescued. The fish were then moved to a different part of the channel away from where work would be performed.

Total length of river work performed on CO HWY7 was approximately two miles in length. The duration of which took six and a half months from start to finish. FlyWater strategically planned which reaches needed to be completed before winter hit to help with providing the best build conditions, and to ensure a great finished product. FlyWater coordinated with Kiewit for material and mass excavation to streamline the production to be the most efficient possible.