Over the summer, two OCI engineers spent most of their time working in the field. Henry Jones and Isaac Fournier share their experiences:
Henry worked on a stormwater mapping project with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). As a part of the EPA’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit, WSDOT is required to catalog a certain amount of their stormwater conveyance infrastructure each year. For the past two years, OCI has partnered with Jacobs to support WSDOT with this annual effort. Henry and the team are responsible for investigating the pipes and drainage inlets to determine, document and map how the stormwater is conveyed, retained and ultimately managed.
When asked about how his experience in the field this summer, Henry said,
“It has been great to see firsthand how all of the complex stormwater systems work and I reckon that my experience [in the field] has granted me a lot of practical knowledge that will be useful when designing these kind of systems in the future.”
Isaac spent many of his summer days down on the White River in Buckley, WA working on the Mud Mountain Dam Fish Passage Facility project. The goal of the project is to replace the existing fish barrier structure, as well as the existing 62-year old fish trap and haul facility, with a state of the art, automated gate barrier and trap and haul facility. OCI is the lead designer on the Design Build portion of the contract working with Kiewit to design the care and diversion of the river during construction. Isaac has been monitoring the temporary fish passage systems, assisting with fish exclusion efforts and various other field inspections. The daily fish monitoring ensures that the fish in the area are not negatively impacted by the construction and are able to safely enter the trap facility through the temporary fishways, (designed by the OCI team), and that the fishways are maintaining their designed flows.
When asked about his summer in the field, Isaac said,
“The project has allowed me to utilize my fish biology experience while assisting with the rescue and monitoring efforts. It’s been great to be on-site and witness the progress of construction.”
To read more on the Mud Mountain Dam Fish Passage project, click here.
