Description: This presentation examines how stream restoration designs translate from plan sets to construction reality. Using field lessons from a large, multi-site stream project, it highlights constructability, bidding clarity, helpful digital data/files, work transition zones, planning for contractor variability, and a practical checklist for delivering more successful stream projects.

Authors: Charles Ikenberry, John Swanson

Author Bios: Charles Ikenberry is water resources engineer and project director with more than 25 years of experience helping public agencies plan, design, and deliver watershed, lake and stream restoration, and water quality projects. He leads Houston Engineering’s Des Moines and Iowa City offices and also serves on HEI’s board of directors. Outside of work, Charles enjoys time with his wife and 5 children and “homesteading” on their small hobby farm near Runnells, Iowa.

John Swanson has nearly 15 years of experience leading watershed projects and currently serves as the Water Resources Supervisor with Polk County Public Works.  Over the years John has had the opportunity to install both agricultural and urban projects including dozens of wetlands, miles of stream restoration, and hundreds of saturated buffers and bioreactors.  In his spare time, John enjoys floating Iowa’s many rivers with his wife and three daughters, along with a personal mission to catch every species of fish in Iowa on a fly rod.