Kleinschmidt reviewed upstream fish passage alternatives taking into consideration the difficult construction access and Brookfield’s concerns for potential impacts to existing hydro operations and assisted with agency consultation during the initial conceptual design phase. We prepared conceptual design drawings that balanced the input and concerns of Brookfield’s staff with the recommendations of the agencies. Once agreement on the conceptual design was reached, Kleinschmidt served as the engineering lead for the final design for this fish elevator project with an estimated construction cost of more than $8 million. We prepared 30-, 60-, and 100-percent complete design submittals containing drawings and technical specifications for review by the client and agencies. Additionally, Kleinschmidt prepared permit applications for construction of the project and is currently providing construction support for this project.

During the preliminary stages of the project, Kleinschmidt developed a study plan that demonstrated to agencies that 3-D Computational Fluid Dynamics modeling of the tailrace was not necessary, thus avoiding approximately $100,000 in modeling costs.