Riverbend Engineering, LLC is an engineering and construction firm specializing in river restoration. Our offices are in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. We have been consulting on rivers, wetlands, creeks, and arroyos since 1999. Our team of four professionals has more than 60 years of combined experience working with rivers and ephemeral streams. Riverbend’s approach combines technical expertise and knowledge of the regulatory environment to help our clients navigate a project from start to finish. We work diligently to educate our clients on the options available to meet their project goals–including design alternatives, cost estimates, aesthetic considerations, anticipated benefits, maintenance expectations, and the risks associated with certain choices. We want every client to have all the information they need to make good decisions to protect and enhance their reach of river.
WHO WE ARE
Riverbend Engineering has built a successful consulting practice since 1999, applying our knowledge of rivers to a wide variety of projects, locations and client types. The core of our resume is river restoration work. This includes:
- bank stabilization projects;
- fish habitat improvement projects;
- assessments of overall river condition, aquatic and riparian biology, and water quality;
- water flow measurements; and
- restoration of a stable river form, an active floodplain and a robust riparian plant community.
We apply the techniques of fluvial geomorphology and Natural Channel Design (NCD) to many of our projects. Riverbend also provides a full suite of traditional river engineering services. This includes:
- FEMA floodplain impact analysics, FEMA map revisions (CLOMR/ LOMR);
- studies on bridge scour, erosion setback, and sediment transport;
- flood control conveyance systems;
- stormwater detention and retention facilities; and
- hydrologic studies and all manner of hydraulic analyses.
In the past 10 years Riverbend has worked on several dam removal/ dam modification projects. This is new territory for most engineering firms, and Riverbend has been able to apply our river restoration expertise to some high profile projects.
Our project resume from the last 10 years also includes several whitewater park projects. This is another area of expertise that most engineering firms cannot offer. Experience is invaluable when designing a hydraulic structure that will create surf wave conditions for recreation and prevent the creation of a boater entrapment feature.
Riverbend encourages our clients to see the ecological value of a wetland plant community adjacent to the river or pond. Many of our projects present opportunities to create these unique plant communities, even in the small margins of a larger project.
Many of Riverbend’s projects include an irrigation diversion from the river. Whether the application is agricultural or municipal, the diversion of water is an integral part of life in the American West. Unfortunately, there are thousands of examples of diversion structures that have created an unintended consequence, such as a barrier to fish migration, a sediment trap, an entrapment feature for boaters, or an increased base flood elevation. Riverbend has helped many clients repair, modify or replace problematic diversion structures in ways that support the health of the river and minimize adverse effects.