Rocky Reach Buoy Installation

This project provided removal and disposal of an existing tailrace buoy, a mooring system and anchor, and the placement of five district-provided buoy systems to improve dam safety for the Chelan County PUD. Work at Rocky Reach Dam was originally going to take place using a barge, after considerable planning, IMCO’s team developed a solution that would minimize the impacts to the surrounding damsand complete the work faster by utilizing a helicopter instead of a barge. This allowed the team to complete that portion of work in just 53-minutes versus a couple weeks of setup and teardown if they had used a barge.

IMCO’s innovative installation process required coordination and collaboration with three surrounding dams to get the river flow reduced on the morning of the operation to safely utilize a helicopter to remove and place the new buoy systems.