Veterans Park reopens after streambank restoration

Swannanoa River project repairs storm-damaged stretch of waterway

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
June 13, 2024

A restoration project designed to stabilize a section of the Swannanoa River that runs through Veterans Park in Black Mountain was completed, June 11, as the town-owned facility reopened to the public. Photo by Fred McCormick

A popular Black Mountain recreation destination reopened, June 11, following the restoration of approximately 541 linear feet along the bank of the Swannanoa River, where a 2021 tropical storm damaged a previous project.

The 18-hole disc golf course and greenway trails in Veterans Park, which were closed for around three weeks, are now available for public use. The $389,000 project, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the N.C. Department of Public Safety, Division of Emergency Management, will be completed when native plants are installed along the river in the fall.

Administered and supervised by Greenville, S.C. engineering firm Kimley Horn and constructed by Resource Environmental Solutions, the project focused on three sites on the river, north of I-40, according to engineer and certified floodplain manager Jason Claudio-Diaz. The sections are located within a 1,700-foot segment of the river that was repaired in 2021, weeks before Tropical Storm Fred swept through the area and washed away portions of the bank stabilization work.

A bank along the Swannanoa River in Veterans Park as it appears after severe flooding in 2021. The section of the waterway was stabilized through a construction project that was completed, June 11. Courtesy photo

“The damage done to that original project was spotty, and it didn’t destroy all of that work,” Claudio-Diaz said. “We identified a few areas where things didn’t hold up, where the stream banks were eroded and vertical and creating a situation where a lot of sediment was falling into the river.”

While the storm that dumped around 8 inches of rain in Black Mountain caused high velocity flood waters to overtop the banks and erode embankments on both sides of the river, the new project redesigned portions of the original Headwaters Engineering plan.

A stretch of the river bank north of the bridge that connects The Oaks Trail to the park was repaired and improved in the Kimley Horn design. Soil lifts and rock toes were added along the west side of the river, where approximately 100 feet of the bank washed away. A tiered slope and riprap shoreline are intended to establish a terrain that is resilient against the impacts of flooding.

“It keeps us from having those big banks wash out when the water rises,” Claudio-Diaz said. “When the native plants are put in this fall, that will add a naturally stabilizing force to this area.”

A fallen tree was removed downstream, near a bend in the river designated as site two, while a log crossing, utilizing larger pieces of fallen wood, was constructed as an erosion control measure. Rocks along the eastern bank re-channeled an area in are in the river that had been disturbed by the storm.

A log crossing in a section of the Swannanoa River that flows through Veterans Park was among several features added in a restoration project that was completed on June 11. Photo by Fred McCormick

The largest site addressed by the project installed a riffle, or a shallow faster moving stream, with larger rocks protruding above the surface of the river. The feature establishes a natural habitat for the benthic macroinvertebrates native to the body of water. A decreased presence of the organisms led to a seven-mile section of the Swannanoa River being added to the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s 303(d) impaired waters list in 2006.

“The goal is to mimic the natural conditions of this part of the river while stabilizing the stream and bank,” Claudio-Diaz said. “The work itself is intended to balance stability and habitat.”

Two large sections of the bank were graded and stabilized while two additional sloped log vanes were also included in the construction.

“Ultimately, the town is working towards getting this section of the river removed from the impaired waters list,” Town of Black Mountain Project and Facilities Manager Angela Reece said. “Restoration of the bank and streambed itself furthers that effort. This project, coupled with others in the town, helps improve the water quality.”