POMEROY, Wash. – Lower Granite Lock and Dam’s visitor center will be temporarily closed April 18-22 to accommodate work on the nearby juvenile fish bypass system.
For safety, the access road leading to the visitor center will also be closed to public traffic during that time. Contractors will be occupying the access road as they use heavy equipment and large cranes to construct portions of the new fishway leading from the dam to the Juvenile Fish Facility. Traffic crossing the dam will not be affected by current construction activities.
The Walla Walla District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is upgrading the Lower Granite Lock and Dam juvenile fish bypass system. The first phase of construction started in January 2015 and is expected to be complete by February 2017. The improvements are an important part of the Corps’ mission to save salmon and other endangered or threatened species.
The overall upgrade includes “daylighting” the current below-ground juvenile fish-bypass piping from the dam to the juvenile fish facility to an above-ground flume; enlarging selected gatewell orifice openings to the juvenile collection channel; reconfiguring the transportation channel so it will transition to an exterior elevated concrete channel connecting to a new elevated concrete dewatering unit; and diverting excess water to new piping and valves to enhance adult fish ladder attraction, emergency facility water supply, and fish trap water supply.
For more information about the project, go online to http://www.nww.usace.army.mil/Missions/FishPrograms/LowerGraniteJuvenileFishFacilityUpgrade.aspx.
For information about recreational opportunities near Lower Granite Lock and Dam, go to http://www.nww.usace.army.mil/Missions/Recreation/LowerGraniteDamandLake.aspx.
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Release no. 16-019