The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will likely hire a contractor for the sweeping Lower Walnut Creek Restoration Project that aims to improve both flood control and conditions for wildlife and recreation.
County staff recommends the board approve a deal with Four M Contracting, which came in with the lowest bid on the project, at $11.285 million.
The Winters-based civil engineering firm specializes in wetland enhancement projects and the creation of wildlife habitat. The company has done more than 100 projects in California and Oregon, and recently finished the Lower Yolo Restoration Project in the northern section of the Delta, transforming cattle land into wetland habitat for endangered Delta smelt and other wildlife.
Lower Walnut Creek covers the northernmost area of where Walnut Creek meets Suisun Bay. The watershed is the largest in Contra Costa County, draining more than 150 square miles in eight cities containing more than 300,000 residents, according to the project’s website.
The channel is heavily impacted by sediment from the surrounding valley, affecting its flood-control capacity. The goal is to remove sediment without harming the local ecology. The project — decades in the making — would open the area and increase tidal wetlands, improving access for wildlife, including Chinook salmon and steelhead.
Another goal of the plan to is increase human recreational opportunities in the channel. The Contra Costa County Flood District and East Bay Regional Park District have discussed extending the Iron Horse Trail from its current ends near state Highway 4 at Marsh Drive another three miles along Lower Walnut Creek to the park district’s Waterbird Regional Preserve, east of Interstate Highway 680 near Martinez.
The project would add levees to establish the trail extension. The plan would also add public access to Pacheco Marsh, including 2.4 miles of new trails, staging area, elevated vistas, bird-watching blinds, and restrooms. There could also be at least one bridge over the channel and a launch area for small watercraft.
The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors meets virtually at 9 a.m. Tuesday. For viewing information, go to https://bit.ly/311hH8t.
This sounds like a great project.
I’m looking forward to the Iron Horse Trail extension and bird-watching possibilities.
Additionally, this will allow the homeless a much better vista to observe from their tents along the shore.
Another great project for volunteers is to collect the litter, random junk, and feces that people leave behind.
It’s a win-win on so many levels.
Yes and adding restrooms will give the homeless a place to crap & sleep.
Could it be that the Dodo really isn’t extinct ?
Is one of the 4 Ms moving the homeless and their refuse out of the creek bed and stopping their illegal pollution into our watershed?
This truly sounds like a wonderful project! Can this wait a few years so that our state/county/ etc can get their budgets back in order post Covid? It is strange that some vital county departments are in a budget deficit and yet we are catering to extra projects that can wait. ???
If we are to believe the election results, they just passed a massive, long term tax increase on the last ballot.
yeah the high speed scam train is defunked as the state put cal trans in charge of themselves so the billions of dollars going to the unions for nothing is one place to stop the thieving
this is just another hey berkley you love this stuff so we will act like we care and make it cost billions
millions of illegals coming in ….when we have legal immigration standards
dems doing nothing again after they vowed to make america great again
after 4 years of crying about russians and yet it was the chinese… the dems hired that killed us …go figure
no rent paid for the entire year and so on
jobs cut and pushed to big box online ordering crushing yet more small businesses …
seems like the democrats and big money are getting exactly what they wanted
you getting briken down and them getting it all
great job voters …..oh sorry thats right we dont vote anymore
the machine tells us who won
@Random Task, With the Democrat voting machine, oops I mean Dominion voting machines California will continue to vote Democrats into office and vote for raising taxes.
Will project result in an increase number of West Nile cases ?
this is the same group who thinks racism is a public health crisis, so they must be something wrong with this. maybe some kind of kickback.
Easy…and unfortunate…that a project that should benefit tax-paying, honest citizens is met with legit skepticism
Homeless Camp goes luxury
A few sceptics aboard today. Anyway I would rather see them do something with our taxes then give them away. While they are at it make a redwood park out of the old Navy land.
another waste of our endless $’s funded by the conservatives who work for a living but will soon be escaping from California.
Waste? I happen to be one of “the conservatives” funding this and this is EXACTLY the type of project my taxes should pay for instead of funding unsustainable public employee pensions, illegal aliens, “outreach” to the alphabet people, and countless other woke bulls*** my taxes fund. Relatively speaking $11.3M is a drop in the bucket and I’m glad it’s going to such a worthy project.
I’ve discovered the secret to getting your complaints through by voicemail to a California state government office. When they ask if there are more than 10 people in the household, say “Yes.”