The Gunnison Wave has been re-engineered and rebuilt, to restore the final feature at the County’s whitewater park.
MWDG was called in and identified a safety issue during the latter part of 2013. We assisted the County immediately by helping them find funding and formulate a plan to replace the structure: they wanted to rebuild the feature in a way that would last and require little or no maintenance. Sadly, before final funding was received last fall, a dog died after entering the river, only to get sucked into the hazardous feature. Funding was granted by GOCO in December, 2014 and on an unprecedented timeline (in our field) we designed and bid the project in January, 2015. Construction took place in February and March on a timeline necessary due to the immediate public safety hazard. The County is still finalizing the expenses but Ben believes we completed the project significantly under budget!
“Through our work with the boating community in Gunnison,” notes engineer Ben Nielsen, “we designed a feature that will be fun and a great place to spend hours, even at low flows, extending the boating season in the area significantly. When we officially opened it up the flow was at 600 cfs, which is pretty low, but we were able to board surf and play boat it: everyone was super excited. Right now it’s running at 600 cfs and folks are play boating: previously, the park would not have been playable.”
We are so excited for this community to once again have this feature back in action, and we look forward to heading out to surf for decades to come.
Join MWDG at this year’s Gunnison River Festival June 12-14. We’ll be psyched to share the MWDG-engineered Gunnison Wave with the town, region and paddling and surfing communities. Hope to see you there!
