Waller Creek Corridor Restoration – When Stream Restoration is Not Enough
Diana Wang, PE, LEED, AP
City of Austin, Watershed Protection Department
Austin, Texas
Craig Taylor, PE
LimnoTech
Oakdale, MN
Authors: Diana Wang, PE, Craig Taylor, PE, Timothy Gazzo
For decades, lower Waller Creek had been known as a severely degraded, flood-prone scar cutting through the heart of Austin, Texas. In recent years, the creek had a functional assessment score of poor in nearly every category. The lower section of the creek had the highest-ranked erosion and water quality problems in the city. When the City set its sights on improving stream function, the physical constraints of the urban core and demands to meet multiple City missions within the creek corridor made traditional stream restoration infeasible. The vision for Waller Creek to serve as both park amenity and city infrastructure required a more ambitious creek corridor restoration project.
The story of the Waller Creek Corridor Restoration began with the creation of a flood control tunnel which evolved into a host of opportunities for environmental restoration, park revitalization, greenway development, and economic stimulus. The transformation of over 35 acres of connected green space is being delivered through a public-partnership partnership, the Waterloo Greenway project. The over $75 million dollar second phase of the project, The Confluence, sits at the cultural epicenter of historically significant and highly frequented downtown destinations. Within its limits, multibillion-dollar transit initiatives, Convention Center expansion plans, and construction of a supertall tower are underway. While the backbone of the project is the reconstruction of the creek channel, its urban context necessitates an approach that equally emphasizes enhancing pedestrian connections, optimizing aging infrastructure, and calibrating the design with plans for public and private development.
This presentation will highlight The Confluence and discuss the unique implementation strategies required to execute this community redefining project, including: a multi-interest client and design team, diverse funding strategies, real estate acquisition, and restoration philosophies that challenged traditional stream restoration dogma.
About Diana Wang, PE, LEED, AP
Diana Wang, PE, LEED AP is a Project Manager with the City of Austin Watershed Protection Department. She has 19 years of professional experience in the public and private sectors, including civil/land development consulting, dam safety, and public works projects. Diana has extensive experience in site design and permitting, utility coordination, land use issues, and easement acquisitions for large-scale urban redevelopment projects. In her current role, she leads a technical advisory group and sponsor team that is responsible for delivering the Waterloo Greenway Confluence stream restoration and park project.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-wang-pe-leed-ap-2868538/
About Craig Taylor, PE
Craig Taylor, PE, is a Hydraulics and River Rehabilitation Specialist. He has over 15 years of professional experience in restoration design, physical hydraulics, sediment transport, and stormwater modeling. Craig has developed specific skills in designing new channels for streams and rivers which do not have existing natural morphology due to previous development and has served as a technical leader on over two dozen urban river restoration projects. Craig also serves as an instructor at the University of Virginia’s Landscape Architecture graduate program.
