South St. Vrain at Hall Ranch Restoration

Landscape Architecture > River Restoration > South St. Vrain at Hall Ranch Restoration

Lyons, Colorado

Client: Boulder County Parks and Open Space

South St. Vrain Creek experienced significant flooding in 2013 which rerouted the creek channel and caused substantial damage to existing infrastructure.  Emergency response work immediately after the flooding identified the 3.2 mile section of South St. Vrain Creek at Hall Ranch as a priority for improvement to minimize the threat to existing infrastructure and restore stable ecologic function.

Boulder County Parks and Open Space (BCPOS) retained Matrix Design Group, Otak, THK, ERO and Blue Mountain Consultants to develop a 30% restoration plan with the goal of fostering public support for the project, reducing infrastructure risk, stabilizing the creek channel and restoring ecologic function to the riparian corridor. Following the 30% design, the Design Team was contracted to develop 80% construction documents for over a mile of the creek and perform construction observation as the project was completed in the fall of 2017. THK lead the public outreach process and revegetation effort for the project.

Ultimately, the restoration at Hall Ranch dramatically improved South St. Vrain Creek by defining a stable channel width, adding in-stream habitat structures, sculpting deep holding pools, increasing floodplain capacity and restoring the natural riparian environment by planting over two dozen plant species that were naturally occurring prior to the 2013 flood.