Rebuilding Roads and Rivers: Post-Helene Stream Design Strategies
Katie Clatterbuck, PE
HDR
Winston-Salem, NC
Kevin Verweire
HDR
Walton, NY
Authors: Clatterbuck, Katie, PE, Verweire, Kevin
Hurricane Helene caused devastating damage to infrastructure and the environment across Western North Carolina in the fall of 2024. NC DOT’s roadway reconstruction projects are ongoing to repair highway infrastructure damaged during the storm. Many of these projects include an aspect of river re-establishment work in areas where the high flows or geomorphic changes caused roadway instability and failure. In current practice, stream stabilization or restoration work is most often performed to address anthropogenic impacts. A natural disaster like Hurricane Helene, which caused 500- to 1000-year flow events in many areas and also had major geologic impacts, warrants a different approach to river stabilization. This presentation will explore the integrated design and unique challenges to designing natural channel features while prioritizing roadway infrastructure protection and allowing natural stream processes to continue stabilization after project completion.
Attendees will gain insights from the US-74a Gerton to Bat Cave corridor project which involved redefining channel alignments and designing for a very steep, headwater stream in an incredibly confined corridor. A focus was placed on balancing the design goals for both infrastructure and the natural channel through simple proposed stream modifications to promote long term re-establishment of the ecosystem. This design approach was simpler, but is reliant on the flexibility to make field adjustments to proposed channel alignment, profile, and/or geometry because of the difficulty inventorying the existing conditions. An emphasis was placed on utilizing and reconfiguring existing on-site native material to re-establish natural channel geomorphology.
Efficient, practical solutions that benefit both infrastructure systems and local ecology through protection of critical species habitats have become essential to rebuilding after Hurricane Helene. The strategies utilized on these projects to balance often conflicting priorities may provide beneficial insight to other practitioners.
About Katie Clatterbuck, PE
Katie Clatterbuck is a Water Resources Engineer with HDR in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has been with HDR for 6 years since graduating from Virginia Tech with a degree in Biological Systems Engineering. She has experience working on stormwater and open channel design projects as a hydraulic modeler and designer. Her experience is primarily focused in the Piedmont and Mountain regions of North Carolina
About Kevin Verweire
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