The City of Columbus seems to be inviting rafting company outfitters to sample what will be the exciting climax to whitewater adventure through downtown Columbus. View it here!
Construction update: great strides have been made this summer!
The WaveShaper, to be located on the Georgia (river left, for all you river runners) side, is moving toward completion! Installation will take place in a month or so. There will be plenty of rock work to do around the installed components, so testing will begin later in the fall. In November, we will carve down the rest of the Eagle and Phenix Dam sometime in November to start the initial tuning phase: the dam will then be removed completely at that point.
The engineers and construction crew are busy upstream, as well! MWDG engineer Jack Goble says they are preparing the Habitat Pool, a section of the river that will provide a lazy break in the action. To facilitate smooth, easy pathways through the bedrock channel they have excavated rock in some areas and built rock sills in others. According to Jack, “We have also ‘armored’ the river banks to protect them from the erosion that would occur with the increased velocities we anticipate, after removal of the Eagle-Phenix dam downstream.”
Got Google Earth? Find the Habitat Pool at 32.476564,-84.993544!