Two local streams are getting a half million dollars in makeovers as a result of major construction at the Norfolk Southern rail/truck terminal and the turnpike’s Blue Mountain Interchange.The dam on Conococheague Creek behind Wilson College is coming out, and fish habitat structures are going in..
Middle Spring Creek is being stabilized at the site of a former hydro-electric dam off Stonewall Road in Southampton Township. The work began this week..
The goal of both projects is to reduce erosion, cool the streams and improve fish habitat.
Franklin County Conservation District and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection are reviewing the plan at Wilson College. Work there should begin this fall..
“We had hoped to do it last year, but we had an unusually wet year,” said Eric Levis, spokesman for Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. “Our goal is to have it done by March 1.”.
Approvals are expected within a couple of weeks, he said. Construction will take four to six weeks. Work is not allowed in the warm water fishery between March 1 and June 15, when Conococheague is stocked for trout season. Dozens of unique habitat models at fishiding.com
Norfolk Southern is paying $294,600 for the work. The project in the Borough of Chambersburg and Greene Township is off-site mitigation for construction of a $95 million regional intermodal facility in Antrim Township at Interstate 81 Exit 3. The rail/truck terminal is to be completed later this year..
The area behind the college is a popular fishing spot during Pennsylvania’s trout season. The 11-acre restoration project stretches two-thirds of a mile, from upstream of the railroad trestle to the south end of campus..
Rivers Unlimited of Boalsburg has submitted plans that call for:.
– Removing the small dam and railroad footer..
– Taking out excess sediment upstream of the dam..
– Converting the former mill pond below the dam to seasonally flooded wetlands..
– Filling a parallel channel downstream..
– Installing devices built of rocks and logs, including 16 log deflectors, four j-hook vanes, three rock cross vanes, seven rock vanes and 13 rock habitat clusters..
– Maintaining the irrigation system to the college athletic fields..
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is paying for the Middle Spring Creek project, estimated to cost less than $100,000. The fish habitat and stream restoration is mitigation for the turnpike’s $32 million upgrade of the Blue Mountain Interchange in Lurgan Township. Reconstruction of the interchange includes a new bridge and relocating the ramps. A mile of the turnpike will be widened to three lanes. Work is about 60 percent done and on target to be completed by June 21, according to Russ Grubb with the engineering consultants Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson. The toll booth remains open..
The project had an unavoidable impact to the Laughlin Run watershed in Hopewell Township, Cumberland County, according to the plans. DEP required the Turnpike to mitigate 1,200 feet of Middle Spring Creek..
The preferred option is to avoid the impact, then to reduce it and finally to mitigate, on site if possible, according to Grubb. .
“Unfortunately we didn’t have the opportunity right on site,” he said. “You look at projects that help the environment. We have to get the biggest bang for the buck.”.
The turnpike returned to the site where it had spent more than $100,000 two years ago to remove a dam on Middle Spring Creek. That project was mitigation for straightening a curve on the highway, according to Andrew Lutz, environmental manager for the turnpike..
The dam once supplied electricity to Shippensburg, according to Southampton Township Supervisor Samuel Cressler..
The control station burned down in the 1920s, Lutz said. The former landowner Leora Shoop had posted the area because of the hazard of the dam. Middle Spring Creek on the border of Franklin and Cumberland counties has a reproducing population of trout..
Flyway Excavation Inc. of Lititz will be working in the stream throughout September, Lutz said. Improvements include several deflectors, boulders, a j-hook vane, cross rock vane and mud sill. More than 125 trees and 200 shrubs will be planted as a riparian buffer. The work is to be done before Christmas.By JIM HOOK
