Our Solutions
We see potential in every
river and community.
Our mission to bring rivers and people together drives all of our designs. Over the past several decades, we have pioneered innovative, practical methods for improving river health and integrating recreational features into rivers. We have developed an array of solutions to address the unique needs of your river and community.
Holistic Solutions
We are surfers, paddlers, rivers enthusiasts and designers.
Our firm offers full civil engineering, landscape architecture, water resources and river recreation design services backed by Merrick. We offer the largest, most diverse team of professionals in the industry. We’re licensed professional engineers, a requirement for all wave, whitewater, and river planning and design.
McLaughlin offers a full range of services to help facilitate your project every step of the way, from community consensus building to fundraising and design.
Our Services:
- Visioning & planning
- Stakeholder engagement
- Feasibility
- Design
- Hydraulic modeling
- Permitting
- Funding support
- Construction support
- Start-up & operations
- Iconic Waves and
Whitewater - Urban River
Restoration - Water Trails
and Access - Diversions
and Intakes - Fish Passage and
Dam Removal - Pumped
Whitewater
Iconic Waves and Whitewater
Our river waves are considered the “gold standard” for river park recreation.
Great waves are rare and difficult to design. For a wave to form, everything has to come together perfectly. We realized this decades ago and developed our patented WaveShaper, the first and only truly adjustable wave technology. What’s remarkable about this invention is not just that it creates exceptional waves but it does in river flows ranging from 200 to 10,000+ cubic feet per second. We use the WaveShaper to create quality waves 365 days a year, unheard of for non-adjustable features.
Our renowned waves and whitewater projects have driven river and community economic prosperity and drawn hosting for the Olympic games as well as World and National championships.
Our Iconic Waves and Whitewater services include:
- River community outreach
- Feasibility – budgeting, economic impacts, solutions
- WaveShaper – adjustable waves
- World-class whitewater design – slalom, freestyle kayaking, surfing
- Hydraulic modeling – physical models, CFD 3-dimensional
- Water access – put-ins & take-outs
- Parks, open spaces, trails
- River & dam safety
- Multipurpose infrastructure – combined diversions, outfalls, utilities with recreation
- Permitting support
- Construction documents
- Operations & maintenance support
Urban River Restoration
Urban rivers present unique challenges to restoration.
Development encroachment with no connected floodplains, degraded habitats, safety hazards and infrastructures (like bridges, dams, pipe outfalls and utility crossings) is everywhere. But there is a tremendous opportunity to realize river health, recreation and economic prosperity through connecting the community to their river. We are a national leader in the design of multi-purpose dam and diversion infrastructure. And when dams are no longer needed, we remove them.
We have shown that it is possible to make our urban rivers healthier, safer and fun while acknowledging the many pressures they face. McLaughlin Whitewater was the lead designer on the Chattahoochee River Restoration, one of the largest urban river restoration projects in the United States.
Our Urban River Restoration services include:
- Dam removal
- Fish passage & habitat
- Feasibility – budgeting, economic impacts, solutions
- River design – waves & whitewater, restoration, vegetation
- Multipurpose infrastructure – combined diversions, outfalls, utilities with recreation
- Dam & river safety
- Parks & open spaces
- Access & trails
- Hydraulic modeling – physical models, CFD 3-dimensional, 2D, 1D
- Design details & construction documents
- Community outreach
- Permitting & approvals coordination
Water Trails and Access
Rivers, especially in cities, lack access from upland areas to the water’s edge. Water trails and river accesses help us reconnect people and rivers.
From rafting outfitters, to families, to the disabled, our designs get diverse users to the water.
We create water trails that address hazards with dam safing, integrating recreational passage at dams or removing dams that are no longer needed, opening up rivers for users to float or paddle downstream.
Our Water Trails and Access services include:
- Master planning & feasibility – budgeting, economic impacts, renderings
- Stakeholder outreach
- River design – bypasses, whitewater rapids
- Multipurpose infrastructure – combined diversions, outfalls, utilities with recreation
- Dam & river safety
- Dam removal
- Parks & upland access amenities
- Water access – put-ins & take-outs, portage trails
- ADA accessibility
- Design details & construction documents
- Permitting & approvals coordination
Diversions and Intakes
Our solutions leverage expertise with water infrastructure and recreational whitewater design to improve the function of a facility while accommodating safety, recreation, and environmental goals.
Rivers and the infrastructure built in them have shaped society. Often, that infrastructure is critical to a community but has a single purpose such as delivering water or creating power. We have shown that river infrastructure can be modified to improve recreation, access, safety, and fish passage.
Our Diversions and Intakes services include:
- Intake & screen design
- Flashboard & gate selection
- Open channel/canal design
- Closed conduit design
- Controls
- Structural analysis & design
- Integrating recreation – whitewater, waves, by-pass channels
- Dam safety & mitigation
- Site civil works
- Fish passage & fish exclusion
- Flood analysis
- Hydraulic modeling – physical models, CFD 3-dimensional, 2D, 1D
- Scour & sedimentation analysis
- Water access – put-ins & take-outs, portage trails
- Permitting support
- Construction documents
- Construction observation
- Operations & maintenance support
Fish Passage and Dam Removal
McLaughlin Whitewater is a national leader in the design of low hazard, integrated fish passage and recreation projects. Whether it’s a fishway or removal of an unneeded dam, we believe that fish and people should and can move freely in our rivers.
Tens of thousands of dams across the U.S. are defunct, serving little to no societal purpose. Unfortunately, they block fish passage and create dangerous river hazards. Our approach to dam removal lifts ecosystems while bringing safety, recreation, and community benefits.
Fish passage projects involve an obstruction in the river, typically a dam. The “hydraulic drop” that dams represent provides excellent recreational whitewater opportunities. While fish ladders have traditionally been dangerous to people, properly designed rock ramp fishways can pass fish while presenting low hazard for boats and boosting recreational value.
Our Fish Passage services include:
- Fish passage – roughened channels, baffled slot fishways
- Safety – low hazard fish passage to river users
- Fisheries biologists, resource manager coordination
- River design – restoration, vegetation, bank stabilization
- Multipurpose infrastructure – combined diversions with fish passage & recreation
- Diversion, intake & civil design
- Dam removal
- Access & Trails
- Hydraulic modeling – physical models, CFD 3-dimensional, 2D, 1D
- Design details & construction documents
- Permitting & approvals coordination
Pumped Whitewater
No river? No problem. We can design completely artificial whitewater in the form of a pumped recirculating course.
Large pumps move water in an effective circle, flowing through rapids and waves that allow rafters, kayakers, and duckies a never ending river run. Unlike other designers, our holistic approach and expertise allows us to design not only the whitewater but all the infrastructure that drives these venues, including pumping.
Addressing the entire system leads to cost and efficiency gains while optimizing the recreational experience.
Our Pumped Whitewater services include:
- Master planning & feasibility
- Course & site layout & alternatives
- Operations planning & pro forma (in collaboration with partners)
- Fully integrated systems design in house – pumping, reservoir, channel, whitewater, site civil, structural
- WaveShaper – adjustable waves
- World-class whitewater design – slalom, freestyle kayaking, surfing
- Whitewater safety & swift water rescue
- Hydraulic modeling – physical models, CFD 3-dimensional, 2D, 1D
- Water access – put-ins & take-outs
- Park spaces, viewing, site access
- Permitting support
- Construction documents
- Construction observation
- Operations & maintenance support
Diverse Projects
Each river and each project is different — we have a well-honed methodology and process that we lean on to approach the individuality of our projects.