Jerry Branch Stream Restoration Feasibility Study and Conceptual Design

Client: Georgia Department of Transportation

Location: Rabun County, Georgia

Services: Environmental planning and design, environmental studies

In 2002, as part of the GDOT Environmental Open-end Services Contract, KCI was tasked with conducting a stream restoration feasibility study and developing restoration design alternatives for approximately 8,700 linear feet of Jerry Branch and its tributary as it occurs on the campus of Rabun Gap Nacoochee School, located in northern Rabun County, Georgia.

The proposed project is intended to serve as compensatory mitigation for stream impacts associated with planned improvements to US Highway 441. The task involved detailed investigations to include constraints evaluation, stream morphological assessment, stability/departure analysis, hydrologic/hydraulic monitoring, and riparian corridor habitat evaluation. Extensive reference ecosystem and USGS gauge analyses were also conducted in order to facilitate the development of the restoration design alternatives. The results of the Study and the conceptual design criteria and restoration alternatives were subsequently presented, in conjunction with the GDOT, to the staff of the Rabun Gap Nacoochee School. Based upon the results of the presentation KCI and GDOT are working to secure a formal agreement with the School, which identifies a preferred course of action and establishes a protective conservation easement for the project. KCI expects to initiate the design phase of the project in 2004.





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