Tinker’s Creek Stream Restoration

Princeton Hydro and GV-Petro Joint Venture are restoring 41,000 linear feet of urban stream using nature-based design techniques within a highly urbanized watershed. Prince George’s County borders Washington, DC to the east, and is the second-most populous county in Maryland. Working with Prince George’s County Department of the Environment and coordinating with the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission, this full-delivery project is designed to meet the County’s Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) and its Municipal Separate Stormwater System (MS4) and TMDL requirements. This stream restoration project was identified as a priority due to the significant levels of channel incision and the severity of erosion and its impacts on surrounding neighborhoods. Additionally, the project’s proximity to the headwater reaches located on Joint Base Andrews (JBA), and the ability to improve water quality and wildlife habitat made this project a high priority. 

The design for the stream and all the tributaries within the project area will restore the channels and floodplains to naturally stable forms. During the preliminary assessment of onsite conditions, the stream and tributaries within the restoration area were classified using geomorphic assessments and hydrologic and hydraulic analysis. Once the stream types and conditions were identified, a series of restoration approaches such as floodplain creation, bank stabilization using natural materials and plantings, re-aligning straightened stream channels to have a more natural sinuosity, regenerative stream design and natural material grade control structures were used to reduce channel flow velocities and shear stress for flows greater than bankfull, reduce bank erosion and maintain bank stability, treat and attenuate stormwater flows, stabilization of outfalls and the receiving stream channels, and stabilize vertically unstable channels. The project area contained various subsurface utilities, including sanitary sewer along the entire reach, and fiber-optics and natural gas lines across the corridor. The stream restoration project will improve hydraulics, geomorphology, physicochemical, and biological stream functions through bank stabilization. It will also increase floodplain connectivity, improve bedform diversity, restore riparian buffers, and protect public subsurface utilities. In addition to water quality benefits, this project will preserve and enhance the forested floodplain and provide ecological uplift throughout the entire stream corridor.

Princeton Hydro is currently (2020) providing construction oversight of all critical nature-based structures such as grade controls, headwater step-pool grade controls, headwater valley regenerative stream design step-pools, bank stabilization structures and stormwater outfalls.