The first phase of a project to rechannel China Creek near Little Hanaford Road in Centralia is nearly complete. The goal is to better equip the creek to handle large weather events and mitigate downtown flooding.
A pallet of wood still to be used on the project to rechannel China Creek in Centralia sits on the worksite Tuesday afternoon near Little Hanaford Road.
The first phase of a project to rechannel China Creek near Little Hanaford Road in Centralia is nearly complete. The goal is to better equip the creek to handle large weather events and mitigate downtown flooding.
Small plants sit on the bank of the rechanneled China Creek off Little Hanaford Road in Centralia. The first phase of the project is nearly complete ahead of the second portion expected to commence in 2020.
Phase one of efforts to mitigate flooding from China Creek into the city of Centralia is nearing completion out on about 25 acres of land near Little Hanaford Road.
Workers from C & R Tractor and Landscaping of Kelso have worked since June to move tens of thousands of cubic yards of dirt to move the creek away from the side of the road and into a series of wide-swinging turns across the property.
The excavation work along with new plantings done along the creekside and debris structures placed within the creek bed were done to slow the flow of water from China Creek into downtown Centralia.
“The idea is to control the water flow and be able to hold it during large weather events,” said Kim Ashmore, Centralia’s Public Works director. We want to keep that water from flooding our businesses. Eubanks Glass on Main Street gets affected a lot of the time when the creek floods. If we can mitigate that, it’ll be a successful project.”
Ashmore estimates the project is about 90 percent complete, with the remainder to be finished by the end of the year. The mitigation aspect of the project is operational now, save for a bit of water that pools near a culvert that’s part of the old creekbed.
At a price tag of about $2.1 million, the endeavor costs significantly less than what was first budgeted. Centralia city councilors approved the remitting of $500,000 back to Chehalis Basin Flood Authority at their last meeting, money that will be put toward a number of other Flood Authority projects.
Scott Boettcher, staff to the Flood Authority, said those projects include expansion of a levy protecting Aberdeen and Hoquiam, development of a flood storage plan for Chehalis and mitigation of flooding from Berwick Creek by the Port of Chehalis.
“We’ve had projects that have returned sizable sums of money because construction bids come in lower, because they’ve found some efficiencies along the way,” Boettcher said. “In this case, the project was inherited by (Ashmore) and there was some time lost in the permitting process. Once it got going again, it didn’t need all the money originally made available. That’s a compliment to the city for some really good project management.”
Ashmore and city staff have begun to turn their attention to starting phase two of the project. Proposed plans call for increased water storage in the Agnew Mill Ponds near Gold Street.
Applications for grant funding have been submitted and the city has the money to begin the permitting process next year. It hopes to get everything ready to go by the end of 2019 in anticipation of breaking ground early in 2020.
Completing the creek renovations near Little Hanaford Road may not be the end of work done on that site. Lewis County Commissioner Edna Fund reached out to Boettcher after a constituent contacted her to ask about a potential pedestrian path through the creek bed.
“(Boettcher) said it might be feasible down the road,” Fund said. “I think the city would like to do more of that in the future, too, but there’s no funding right now, so hopefully it’s something that can be looked at eventually.”
