What's Happening

Construction is starting on the project in early June 2018. Please stay out of the site during construction for your safety and the safety of the crew. Also, be aware of vehicles crossing the Foothills Trail to enter and leave the site. Completion of the final phase is expected by winter of 2018.

About the Project

The South Fork Road Floodplain Restoration project currently has a 2,000-foot side channel and a 1,100-foot backwater channel. In addition to building these channels, crews built engineered log jams in the channels, constructed a perimeter access road and planted native plants.

Benefits include

• Flood risk reduction for neighborhoods along the east-side of the Puyallup River.
• Restoration of the floodplain, which allows the river to function more naturally by providing flood storage in a new side channel.
• Provides salmon habitat for spawning during the summer and fall and juvenile salmon rearing during the winter, especially beneficial to endangered Chinook salmon.

The final phase of the project, Phase 2B, will complete the side channel’s second segment (1,300 lineal feet), install engineered log jams and native plants. The downstream end of the side channel will be connected to the Puyallup River, creating a total side channel length of about 4,200 linear feet. The largest side channel restoration project on the Puyallup River to date. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers donated 200 logs from Mud Mountain Dam in 2016. The logs are for engineered log jams in the final phase of the project.