Skip to main content

Southmoor Drive Channel & Floodplain Restoration Project

Southmoor Drive Proposed Project Area
Southmoor Drive Proposed Project Area

Project Details

  • Project Channel Length: 23,000 linear feet
  • Projected Project Cost: $6.3 Million
  • Estimated Completion: Spring 2025
  • Funding Partners: City of Fountain $600,000 and CWCB Grant $700,000

 

February 2025 Project Update

As of February, the Southmoor Drive Channel and Floodplain Restoration Project has reached 40% completion. After design was brought to 100% completion by Matrix Design Group and went to bid, Total Terrain was selected as the construction contractor for the project. Construction officially began November 13, 2024. The Fountain Creek diversion has been installed to move water to the western side to allow room for construction on the eastern bank and installation of the riffle. To learn more about the project progress as reported by Matrix Design Group to FCWD's Technical Advisory Committee in February, click here.

 

Snow-covered landscape with rocks, a river, and a bulldozer on a slope; clear blue sky and trees in the background.
View of the Southmoor Drive project eastern side.
A snowy slope with a river, rocks, and a construction vehicle; trees and a house on a cliff above.
View of the Southmoor Drive project eastern embankment.
A vast dirt landscape with tire tracks, mountains in the background, and a clear blue sky.
Two bulldozers moving fill at the project site.
View of eastern bank of Southmoor Drive, includes rocks and dirt covered in some snow.
Additional view of the Southmoor Drive project.
A construction site with an excavator and piles of rocks under a clear blue sky.
Excavator moving fill at the Southmoor Drive project.
Person in protective vest and helmet measuring diameter of tree trunk
Measuring toe wood diameter.
A person in a safety vest measures logs with a tape measure on a grassy field next to a truck.
Measuring toe wood length.
An excavator digging in muddy water with shadows of people on the ground.
Excavator digging in muddy water.
View of cleared embankment area at Southmoor Drive, includes dirt and overlook of creek to the west
View from eastern bank across Fountain Creek.
A person with safety gear examines a rocky excavation site with layered soil and stone rubble.
Person walking around construction on Southmoor Drive project site.
Snow-covered landscape with rocks, a river, and a bulldozer on a slope; clear blue sky and trees in the background.
A snowy slope with a river, rocks, and a construction vehicle; trees and a house on a cliff above.
A vast dirt landscape with tire tracks, mountains in the background, and a clear blue sky.
View of eastern bank of Southmoor Drive, includes rocks and dirt covered in some snow.
A construction site with an excavator and piles of rocks under a clear blue sky.
Person in protective vest and helmet measuring diameter of tree trunk
A person in a safety vest measures logs with a tape measure on a grassy field next to a truck.
An excavator digging in muddy water with shadows of people on the ground.
View of cleared embankment area at Southmoor Drive, includes dirt and overlook of creek to the west
A person with safety gear examines a rocky excavation site with layered soil and stone rubble.

 

Video of the Southmoor Dr Project Site Before Restoration - No audio

Description: Aerial view of Fountain Creek along Southmoor Dr, Fountain, Colorado. prior to restoration.

 

Video of Southmoor Dr Project Site During Restoration Work - No audio

Description: Aerial view of Fountain Creek along Southmoor Dr, Fountain, Colorado. during resotration work (Jan 2025)

 

Why Southmoor Drive? 

As shown in the Venetucci Farm Focus Area, the Fountain Creek Watershed Assessment for River Stability and Sediment Supply Study (WARSSS) identified this reach of the creek as high priority due to the amount of sediment being contributed to the creek and the destruction of adjacent infrastructure on Southmoor Drive in Fountain, Colorado contributing to the urgency for completion. This project includes a grade-control structure, project 1-2-3 located approximately at river reach 2450+00 and project 1-2-3 located at approximately river reach 2440+00 in the Venetucci Farm Focus Area (Table 5 and Figure 3), (FMO, 2019)*. The grade-control structure will stabilize the channel and reduce channel bed erosion preventing head cuts from migrating upstream. At this site a constricted channel, again the result of anthropogenic influence upstream, flows normal to the cliff face eroding the friable shale unit at the base of the escarpment. Realignment of the channel will restore a significant portion of the bank that has threatened the adjacent Southmoor Drive roadway and building and stabilizing the embankment adjacent to Southmoor Drive will provide protection for local infrastructure.

Benefits of the Southmoor Drive project are consistent with Monetary Mitigation Fund (MMF) project requirements per condition six of the Permit by reducing sediment input to the main channel of Fountain Creek and the protection of infrastructure. Preliminary project costs are estimated to be a total of $6,000,000 with $600,000 provided by the City of Fountain and $700,000 expected to be received from grant funds (Table 6). The additional funds will be provided by the Fountain Creek Watershed District. Updated November 2024.

 

Colorado College Southmoor Drive Storyboard

In the Spring of 2024, FCWD partnered with a Colorado College Landscape Processes and Evaluation class and their professor Dr. Sarah Schanz. FCWD Executive Director Alli Schuch provided an introduction to FCWD, its work, and an overview of the Fountain Creek Watershed. Students spent time in the field observing and measuring some of FCWD's projects and developed three storyboards. These storyboards provide an overview and evaluation of FCWD's work around erosion control, the erratic nature of the creek, and thoughts on future projects. 

CC Southmoor Drive Storyboard

 

Other Resources