DESCRIPTION
Fry Creek passes through developed urban areas of Aberdeen and Hoquiam before discharging to Grays Harbor. During high rainfall events, the flow exceeds the capacity of the channel and the creek floods adjacent urban residential and commercial areas, affecting homes, businesses, roadways, and vital operations. In addition to direct flooding, city storm sewers that are hydraulically connected to the creek surcharge when it floods, contributing to significant flooding in low-lying areas not immediately adjacent to the creek such as Cherry Street farther east in the City of Aberdeen. This project will build on the work completed in the Timberworks Master Plan (to be complete October 2016) to create a 30% design for restoration of Fry Creek to reduce flooding by improving conveyance, storage, and outfall conditions in the creek system. Additional goals include habitat restoration and improved public access to Fry Creek. The outcome will be a 30% design and cost estimate for restoration of Fry Creek. The work will include performing a hydraulic/hydrologic analysis of the basin to determine the anticipated flow of Fry Creek where it passes through the cities, as well as to identify constrictions and model proposed restoration geometry. The final product will be 30% level plans and an engineer's estimate of probable costs that will be used to seek funding (taxes, levies, or grants) for final design and construction.
The hydraulic analysis of the basin was completed in August 2017 and established the design flows for both the Fry Creek Restoration (Phase 1) and Fry Creek Pump Station (Phase 2). Fry Creek Restoration design work was completed up to 60% and stalled due to property acquisition delays associated with two properties directly adjacent to Simpson Avenue. The City recently acquired these properties, but due to contamination believed to be on both these properties, construction activities on these two parcels were omitted from the final design of the Fry Creek Restoration Phase 1 efforts. Improvements on these two parcels will occur at a later date in conjunction with required remediation activities. The Fry Creek Pump Station final design was completed in early 2022. The project was advertised and awarded in mid 2022. Construction activities, which are outside the scope of this project, are ongoing and scheduled to be completed in 2024. The resulting improvements at the Fry Creek Pump Station provide a mechanical tide gate to provide necessary flood protection, modern systems to minimize fish mortality, advanced controls that maximize natural, free-flowing conditions when flood risk is low, and a significant increase to pump capacity to convey flows from intense rainfall events.
