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We have decades of experience turning back of
napkin sketches into signature river parks.
Let’s be real, river projects are tough.
We’re here to guide you and your community through the process. Regardless of your role or where you are in the process, we’d love to explore your ideas and help you unwind what’s possible in your community.
River Park 101
From strategic messaging to finding funding and technical solutions, we have done this many times before. Here’s some basics to give you an idea of what’s possible and how we can help.
How Does the Mclaughlin
Process Work?
Seeing river parks and urban river restorations through to completion involves the following broad stages.
- Feasibility
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Design and Permitting
- Construction
- Post-Construction
Can the project be built? What opportunities and challenges are inherent? Where is the best site?
During this phase, we define the goals and vision for the project. Key deliverables include inventory of existing conditions, initial project budgets and renderings of the project.
Below are areas we assess when determining project needs and feasibility.
- Degraded river environments, which are common to urban areas with infrastructure-manipulated rivers
- Key river conditions for whitewater and waves
- Safety concerns due to existing dams, infrastructure and limited access
- Flooding issues that require effective flood protection planning
- Integration with existing parks, amenities, master plans or other community aspects
Rivers touch entire communities and have far reaching impacts and influence. Working with diverse owners and stakeholders is a given.
During this phase, we meet with and listen to key stakeholders carefully. We work to build consensus and find solutions that balance the needs of owners and diverse stakeholders in the community as well as regulatory agencies.
During this phase, we lean on our deep knowledge and experience to develop sound, practical and proven designs.
The design must reflect the vision of the project and be robust and accurate to ensure performance, constructability, cost-efficiency, and durability. For us engineers, this is where the magic happens. We draw on our experience, use state-of-the art design tools and hydraulic models, and innovate to seek out catered solutions unique to each project. We stay in close contact with permitting agencies along the way for a smooth approval process. Over the past decades designing river parks, we know the levers to pull, the hurdles to overcome, and the challenges to expect.
The importance of your project being built by a qualified contractor with river experience cannot be overstated.
When it’s time to get in the river and build the project, we fully engage with the contractor, owner, and river community during construction to ensure that the vision and design are realized. During this phase, we support all aspects of the process: bidding, contractor selection, construction administration, inspection, and engineering support. Persistence, expertise, experience, and collaboration are key to translating what is on paper to what is built in the real world.
Most whitewater projects require start-up and tuning to dial in the performance.
We evaluate in collaboration with the river community and owner, then work with the contractor to make modifications. Adjustable WaveShapers often reduce or eliminate the need for tuning. Long-term operations and maintenance is key for the legacy of projects. We develop operations and maintenance plans for all of our projects, working closely with and educating owners and staff for smooth transitions after construction but also long after the project is complete as a resource to help as needed.
MCLAUGHLIN RIVER
PARK GUIDE
This comprehensive guide offers details, strategy and tips that will help educate you on the steps and process involved in turning your whitewater park vision into a reality.
