A dam upgrade in Bend, Ore., will provide three distinct river channels, all engineered to match differing—and often competing—needs.
As part of an upgrade to the Deschutes River at the Colorado Dam, the Bend Park & Recreation District hired engineer Otak and contractor Hamilton Construction to turn some 500 ft of in-city river into three channels, serving the needs of wildlife, recreational boaters and white-water paddlers and maintaining the irrigation capacity provided by the roughly 100-year-old, 10-ft-tall sheet-pile dam.