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Cane Creek Channel Relocation

Matt Clabaugh
Barge Design Solutions
Nashville, TN

W. Brant Rutledge, PE
Tennessee Valley Authority
Nashville, TN

Been at TVA since 1992.  While at TVA, I have relocated 2 streams and managed engineering and construction large construction projects such as deep soil mixing to stabilize an ash pond dike, installing vertical and horizontal anchors in dams, seismically remediating earthen dams, demolishing coal power plants, and permanently closing former CCR sites. 

Barge assisted the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in designing and permitting the plan for the relocation and restoration of Cane Creek through a 20-acre work site located near Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Located near the Tennessee River, the site lies within the TVA Colbert Fossil Plant.  TVA will install a soil- and rock-fill buttress against a dike of an Ash Pond within an anomaly area to address potential seismic vulnerability within the Colbert Fossil Plant, in Colbert County, Alabama. As a result, approximately 1,570 linear feet of Cane Creek will be relocated to the east of its present alignment. Barge designed a new channel using the natural channel design approach, and included a naturally meandering channel that reconnected the stream to its historic floodplain and installed stream structures made from native material salvaged on-site including toe wood and constructed riffles. The restoration plan including a vegetation plan involving native species that created a riparian buffer on both sides of the stream. A wetland restoration plan was also developed for the floodplain of the relocated stream to mitigate for wetlands that were impacted due to the project. Other tasks that were performed were developing a 12-Step Compensatory Mitigation Plan and obtaining permits from USACE and Alabama Department of Environmental Management. Barge also provided strategic construction oversight during certain construction tasks including toe wood and constructed riffle installation and floodplain connection.

About Matt Clabaugh
Mr. Clabaugh is currently a project engineer for Barge Design Solutions specializing in stream and wetland restoration and natural channel design.   He has 23 years of experience with restoration and mitigation projects located in the southeastern United States.  He has been involved with all facets of restoration, including stream and wetland delineations, permitting, design, construction oversight, and post construction monitoring.  He graduated from Virginia Tech in 2001. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-clabaugh-pe-cpesc-tn-qhp-5b94776/

About W. Brant Rutledge, PE
Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Auburn University
Professional Engineer
Brant has been with the TVA since 1992.  While at TVA, Ben have relocated 2 streams and managed engineering and large construction projects such as deep soil mixing to stabilize an ash pond dike, installing vertical and horizontal anchors in dams, seismically remediating earthen dams, demolishing coal power plants, and permanently closing former CCR sites.