DENVER — A major infrastructure investment in Denver's South Platte River corridor will help increase the city's vegetated wetland habitat and improve flood management in the area, according to city leaders.
Plans were announced Thursday for the South Platte River Project by city leaders and stakeholders who called it "a once-in-a-generation opportunity" to make lasting improvements. About $550 million in state, federal and local funds are being invested in the restoration and conversation of the ecosystem, according to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.
Through the project, vegetated wetland habitat in the city will increase from 0.7% of the city’s land mass to 6.5%. It will include 160 acres of new riparian corridor, benefitting birds. There will also be 100 acres of new wetland habitat that will improve fish passage and connect with 190 acres of existing habitat for a total of 450 acres of habitat.
All of that will be in a 6.5-mile stretch of the South Platte River from 6th Avenue downstream to 58th Avenue.
The project will address flood-risk issues impacting a 3.5-mile section of Weir Gulch, where channel improvements will greatly reduce the width of the floodplain and reduce or eliminate flood insurance requirements for 360 properties.
About 100 structures will benefit from additional flood risk management measures on the South Platte River, according to the city. Voluntary, non-structural flood protection alternatives will be available for 176 structures in the 3-mile reach of Harvard Gulch.
Improvements between Yale Avenue and Mississippi Avenue will create ecosystem restoration resulting in 11 acres of riparian habitat, 22 acres of aquatic habitat, and 1.5 acres of Palustrine Emergent scrub/shrub wetlands.
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