Pine Camp Stream Restoration: Collaborative Design to Recover a Highly Incised Channel in Urban Richmond, VA
Greg Fox, PE
Adam Nabors
AMT Engineering
Rockville, MD
Authors: Fox, Greg, P.E. and Nabors, Adam
The Pine Camp Stream Restoration Project is a collaborative initiative led by the City of Richmond’s Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to restore approximately 2,000 linear feet of a severely incised stream adjacent to the Pine Camp Cultural Arts Center. The project aims to address significant safety concerns posed by extreme channel incision, enhance the stream corridor’s suitability for public use, and protect critical adjacent infrastructure.
To meet these goals, AMT applied Natural Channel Design principles to reconnect the degraded urban outfall with the downstream forested stream system. Key design strategies included reshaping the channel to improve geometry, reducing shear stress on valley walls, establishing stable streambanks with inset floodplains, and balancing sediment transport processes to improve water quality. These measures were tailored to promote geomorphic stability and ecological resilience within a constrained urban context.
This presentation will highlight the collaborative strategies that guided project development—from interdisciplinary coordination to navigating regulatory, technical, and community-based challenges. We will also explore lessons learned, particularly the complexities of restoring geomorphic function in dense urban settings and the importance of aligning ecological goals with municipal infrastructure needs. The Pine Camp project illustrates how collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches can successfully balance environmental restoration with community and infrastructure priorities in an urban setting.
About Greg Fox
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About Adam Nabors
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