Check out this piece from today's Seattle Times...

Manmade logjams to save 101 from the Hoh


Anybody seen this work? Looks like it might make drifting the Hoh from Oxbow down a little more interesting.

I like the quotes from Leons and Gooding.

I've seen it.

All that heavy equiptment out on the bar nearly made me drive off the road.

IF the 'manmade logjams' they are putting in work perfectly we can all clap our hands and dance a lil jig. Unfortunately I'm less than optimistic

It's the Hoh, a river with a history of making man's efforts to bend it to its will appear laughable at best....

...and if it screws up those holes along the rip-rap, I'll be bummed.

B. Grey, interesting topic.

As a civil engineer by trade and someone who has spent 20 years floating the Hoh and watching the river chip away at highway 101, I can tell you rerouting it with logs where they propose is a practicle alternative to the $40,000,000 cost to reroute the highway. Nevertheless, it is risky. Can you imagine piling logs in front of 20,000 or 30,000 CFS? Talk about playing russian roulet with downstream propery. I wouldn't want to be the engineer that stamps those drawings.

P.S. I'm just pissed that the project will dry up a couple of excellent pieces of holding water. I pull a couple nice nates a year out of there

I drove by there on my way home on Saturday afternoon. I agree with the last post... it might be an engineering impossibility. Right now, the water is going through the new passageway, and there are a few people fishing out anything held captive and putting it into the main stream.

If they get a rainstorm prior to completion of the project, its really going to take the project back to square one. The diversion, which looks like a bunch of great big sand bags isnt going to hold a major storm. It looks like its about 6' high.

Interesting project though, hope it doesnt screw anything up. I would think it would have been less expensive to re-route the road than to play the hand they are playing now, and hope for the best.

I wonder, are they going to put a big drift boat access point in with a parking lot and a fast food restraunt?

I'm headed down that way right now....I'll take a few photos and post them.

People do not not understand that you can not stop nature. If my memory is correct didnt the Hoh hit somewhere in the 80,000cfs last year. I am a realist and am betting my money on nature.

I agree with Matt.

The river is gonna do what it wants to do. It might divert it for some time, but not forever.

May as well map a new route for 101 now instead of wasting $$$ and putting people's property on the line.

Awright back from a nice cookout with friends on the upper river...

...stopped by the diversion as promised and brought back a few photos.

If you are familiar with this stretch of river they may come as a bit of a shock to you, they certainly did me the first time I drove by and saw bulldozers and cranes on the bank.

Anyway, here's a shot of the lower end of the big hole along the rip rap..



...and then up toward the head of fthe hole. Remember what the water used to do in there?



...and finally a picture of the diversion itself...



Pretty incredible.

Hope it doesn't rain!!

Given that John McMilian supports it, and John knows those rivers and fish very very well, I can support it and not say what first crossed my mind ("Why can't we just leave her alone!").

Although I do like Jimmy's comment, "I just think its a joke."

My favorite part of the article was the picture of old Missy Barlow...that was kinda cool.

I wouldn't call her old if I were you Sparkey....

Funny how they care so much about a cemetery but nothing about the homes of people living....just kind of backwards if you ask me.

(Note I do understand that if you live by a river this is the chance you take)

So I see why the lower river is still looking like chocolate milk.

Its not really that bad, the upper is still puking pretty bad too.

I'd say given what they are up against they are doing a good job.

still doesn't change the fact that those cranes, shovels, dumpers and steel grates just don't look like they belong out there.

I'm going to go against the consensus of opinion on the board and predict a successful project.

h20, is there a slot big enough to get a boat through that sheetpile wall?

its hard to tell from the road but I can't see them 'engineering in' a safety hazard.

What a waste of taxpayers money,I will bet mother nature blowa thru there this fall like a freight train, I really got a chuckle over this one!!!!PEACE

Bob, is there a board rule against gambling?

One pot of money, one season, your either for or against, and the folks that win split the pot evenly.

here is the same shot of the diversion as the one above without resizing.

This is really about the only option other than abandoning the road guys - the highway can't be re-routed because there is a deep rotational slide all the way up the side of the mountain. Either no 101 or this has to work. The way they have been protecting the highway, with rock, has captured the thalweg and prevented the river from migrating across it's floodplain, concentrating energy in this one area and continually undermining the rock bulkhead, while pretty much trashing rearing habitat - the hole might hold adults but it's a lousy place for juveniles. This is a gamble to be sure, but I've looked at the plans and what they have designed to anchor the log jams is beyond belief and beyond the ability of any amount of water to move. And wood, unlike rock, provides rearing habitat, so this will be far better for fish than the present situation. It's no sure thing that this will make the river do what they hope it will, but there are pretty much no other feasible alternatives, so I wish them luck, and drought in the mean time

It looks like the project may face some technical difficulties with the Hoh just having peaked at 6,000 cfs not long ago. If the rain does not stop I would not be surprised to see the discharge increase to 10,000 cfs and beyond.