Author: scottshipley

PRESS RELEASE: Calibre-S2O Leading Design and Construction of Dedicated Swiftwater Rescue Training Center in Houston

Posted on by scottshipley

The Swift Water Training for Operation and Rescue Missions (STORM) Ranch will be one of the world’s most advanced urban flood training facilities, providing training for the region’s first responders in flood response, swift water rescue, and low-head dam simulation.

 

 

Flooding is the number one weather-related cause of death in Texas. As Texas’ population grows and becomes more urbanized and as flood frequency increases due to climate and land use factors, swift water rescues will become more common. To address this growing risk, Harris Fort Bend Emergency Services District #100 has contracted with Calibre Engineering and their S2O Whitewater Division (Calibre-S2O) to design and build the STORM Ranch facility in Houston.

Located on a 27-acre site in Houston, the $65 million, 25,000-square-foot facility will feature a large swift-water channel, 2.2-acre dive, powerboat, flatwater training pond, and an urban flood rescue simulator to allow rescue personnel to train in flooded streets and buildings. In the urban flood rescue simulator, massive pumps will move a high volume of water into a mock village including mock streets and buildings, simulating a flood event in controlled, true urban environment.

“From simulating realistic swift water scenarios to providing controlled environments for skill development, this facility will be invaluable in its ability to deliver vital hands-on training,” said Dale Terry, ESD 100 Board President. “Regional emergency response teams will no longer depend on finding a creek or river flowing at an ideal level to create the proper conditions for this vital training. With just the push of a button, the water can be turned on and off. This will allow us to train more first responders in a more realistic environment in order to be fully ready for the next hurricane.”

The Swift Water Training Facility will provide the potential for a multitude of training scenarios, including immersed vehicle, boat, and high-ropes rescues. The project’s “Main Street” will feature a two-story residential building, a sunken residential building with pitched roof, a high ropes tower, and a mock two-story care facility with a flat roof that connects to the high ropes tower. It includes realistic streetscape conditions with such features as narrowed street intersections, utility poles, a rocky gorge area, and a low-head dam simulating varying water levels for high performance, scenario-based training.

In addition to the main training area, the campus will have a classroom training center, a cafeteria, retail space, and housing for visiting trainees. The Swift Water Training Facility is expected to train up to 6,000 personnel per year from local and regional partners.

Calibre-S2O is the project lead and is delivering the design of the core training simulations. Additional project partners include Cloward H2O, Liquid Design, and Norris Design.

“We appreciate the opportunity to work with ESD #100 on creating a state-of-the-art water rescue training facility that will greatly benefit the city and the region,” says Scott Shipley, founder of S2O Design, now part of Calibre Engineering. “More often, we apply our skillset crafting whitewater-based recreation facilities, but designing projects like this to train first responders is both incredibly challenging and incredibly rewarding.”

About Calibre-S2O

Known for “reinventing whitewater,” Calibre Engineering and their S2O Whitewater Division (Calibre-S2O) is a Colorado-based engineering firm that specializes in innovative river engineering, restoration, and community-focused whitewater park design. Their team of expert boater-engineers has planned, designed, and created some of the best in-stream whitewater parks as well as the largest and most dynamic recirculating whitewater parks in the world; including the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, NC; Riversports Rapids in Oklahoma City; the Lee Valley Whitewater Center in London, home of the 2012 Olympics; and Montgomery Whitewater Park in Montgomery, AL, which hosted the 2024 Olympic Trials for Kayak/Slalom earlier this year. The S2O Whitewater Division is led by Scott Shipley, a three-time Olympian and three-time World Cup Kayak Champion. For more information, visit S2ODesign.com or calibre-engineering.com.

-XXX-

 

PRESS RELEASE: Our love for water just got more extreme – Calibre and S2O unite

Posted on by scottshipley

Highlands Ranch, Colo. (October 4, 2023) – Calibre Engineering, Inc. (Calibre) and S2O Design & Engineering (S2O) have united to expand service capabilities and resources. Together as a part of the Calibre family, Calibre and S2O will provide comprehensive water resources design and engineering for whitewater parks, in- river engineering, swiftwater rescue training facilities, and stream restoration throughout Colorado, across the United States, and globally.

“Calibre is passionate about building an elite small business with a focus on exploration and environmental stewardship,” said Gregory Murphy, president and owner of Calibre. “We have been longtime admirers of Scott and his work with S2O, particularly his focus on accessible water recreation and responsible waterway design and construction. Uniting with S2O gives us the ability to bring invigorating work to our staff and further our commitment to integrating rivers and waterways into communities.”

Scott Shipley, founder and president of S2O, said: “S2O has built a reputation for exceptional design and customer service in the whitewater space. Our rapid growth and demand put us in the unique position of wanting to grow quickly in a sustainable way. Uniting with Calibre gives us additional resources and capacity to serve more clients and bring whitewater to even more communities across the globe.”

Whitewater parks are becoming event and activity hubs and the focal points of their communities. These destination venues turn often under-utilized urban areas into true recreational amenities.

Shipley, a three-time slalom kayak Olympian, and S20 are responsible for designing the lion’s share of recirculating whitewater parks in the country and overseas, including the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, NC; Montgomery Whitewater in Montgomery, AL; and the Lee Valley Whitewater Centre in London.

Calibre Engineering, Inc. is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) driven to provide support, service, and exploration in civil, water resources, and structural engineering. Founded in 2000, their team has collaborated on prominent projects across the country in the private, public, and federal sectors. They are passionate about integrating rivers and nature into communities in a tangible way. With offices in Colorado, California, and North Carolina, the firm has supported more than $1.5 billion in development and infrastructure design and construction. Learn more at www.calibre-engineering.com.

S2O Design & Engineering brings unique and innovative whitewater parks and swiftwater rescue facilities to life. Through engineering design and construction support, the S2O team enriches communities with adventure sports, outdoor activities, and endless opportunities for recreation. S2O is trusted around the globe as the leader in traditional in-stream whitewater parks, pumped whitewater parks, and river engineering.

###

blooloop.: Montgomery Whitewater: creating a new outdoor lifestyle destination

Posted on by scottshipley

by Charlotte Coats

On 8 July 2023, a major new outdoor lifestyle centre opened in Montgomery, Alabama. A project several years in the making, Montgomery Whitewater is now bringing whitewater and other water sports thrills to the city, in a drive to promote economic growth, improve residents’ quality of life, support ongoing tourism development, and increase Montgomery’s appeal to a wider workforce – one that places a premium on quality of life when choosing a place to live and work.

Read the full article here.

MEN’S JOURNAL: The Latest Wave of Urban Whitewater Parks Are Making a Big Splash With City Paddlers

Posted on by scottshipley

by Eugene Buchanan

Recirculated whitewater parks are re-energizing urban riverfront recreation with state-of-the-art technology that’s eco-conscious and a total blast.

Kelly Slater isn’t the only wavemaker bringing surf to the people. While his man-made Surf Ranch joins six other such wave pools in the U.S., wave tech has also come to the world of whitewater rafting and kayaking with a new breed of recirculating river parks making a huge splash around the country. The latest example of “urbanizing” recreation is pump-driven Montgomery Whitewater, a river park that opened July 2023 in Montgomery, AL. It’s the nation’s fourth recirculating whitewater venue of, no doubt, more to come.

Read the full article here.

PRESS RELEASE: South Carolina’s Catawba River Bypass Project Complete, Open to Public

Posted on by scottshipley

Long Bypass Reach opens to boaters for the first time in over 100 years.

GREAT FALLS, S.C. (March 16, 2023) – Water is flowing down the Long Bypass Reach of the Catawba River in Chester County, S.C. for the first time since 1907, bringing life and voice back to the rolling granite waves that are the historic “Great Falls” of South Carolina. Officials celebrated the completion of the multi-million-dollar Great Falls-Dearborn Diversion Bypass project that has returned water to the Catawba’s 2.25-mile Long Reach for new recreational opportunities and to restore aquatic life and lowland habitat. The area will be open to public for paddling March 18.

The innovative two-channel design enables a minimum flow of water through the diversion dam while also providing safe boater bypass during high-flow recreational releases. Paddlers will now be able to traverse past the Diversion Dam with a similar difficulty grade as the beautiful corridor of Class II-III whitewater below.

“For anyone that cares about the environment and enjoys playing in rivers, this is a significant milestone,” said Scott Shipley, president of S2O Design and Engineering, the firm that led design and construction of the project. “Paddlers are going to come from all over the region to experience the rapids and surf waves of the Catawba’s Long Reach.”

The long bypass reach will receive six 2,940-cfs recreational releases on two Saturdays and four Sundays per month from March 1 to October 31. There will also be a continuous 850-cfs boatable base-flow from February 15 to May 15, and 450cfs the rest of the year.

.   

The project’s 400-foot Main Channel directs most of the flow down 12 feet of drop from the reservoir to the bottom pool. It incorporates three innovative multi-stage drop structures optimized for safe passage and easy surfing at base flows, creating larger, more powerful whitewater features at release flows.

The 1,075-foot Recreation Bypass Channel (known locally as “the paperclip”) is a narrow, winding channel that features nine drop structures that control the rate and intensity of flows through the channel, a recovery pool, an island with gradually sloped sides, and portage trails for boaters to exit the channel if needed. The access channel’s design also incorporates special formations to prevent fish from being trapped at lower flows.

This project was spawned from Duke Energy’s FERC requirements when relicensing the Catawba-Wateree Hydro Project and is part of the utility’s ongoing efforts to further open local lakes and rivers to recreational use.

“This was an innovative approach to a complex challenge, and our team, including Duke Energy and the engineering firm, has done an outstanding job of navigating the numerous engineering, construction, environmental, and regulatory variables,” said Scott Shipley.

Shipley also stressed that while the features in both channels provide opportunities for playing and surfing, this is considered a flow release project and not a traditional whitewater park.

S2O Design commends American Whitewater, which represented paddling interests across the basin during the FERC relicensing process and was responsible for spearheading the effort to open up this reach of the Catawba River to boating.

About S2O Design & Engineering
S2O Design is an engineering firm specializing in innovative river engineering, restoration, and community-focused whitewater park design. Our team of expert boater-engineers has planned, conceived, designed, and created some of the best in-stream whitewater parks as well as largest and most dynamic recirculating whitewater parks in the world. S2O Design is led by engineer, Olympian, and three-time World Cup Kayak Champion and Freestyle Kayak Champion Scott Shipley. For more information, visit S2ODesign.com.

###

ENGINEERING NEWS RECORD: Montgomery, Ala., Whitewater Project Builds More than Rapids

Posted on by scottshipley

Southeast Construction News

By Derek Lacey

A $75-million whitewater park on course for completion this summer in Montgomery, Ala., is founded not on a river bed but on two winding cast-concrete channels seated on land, with an artificial 22 ft drop in elevation. The channels will receive 12-million gallons of filtered water and give pro kayakers a place to practice on an Olympic-level whitewater course and beginners a place to learn and have fun.

Read full article at Engineering News Record here.

Poudre River Whitewater Park Recognized with ASLA Award

Posted on by scottshipley

Poudre River Whitewater Park, Fort Collins, Colo.

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has recognized the Poudre River Whitewater Park and the City of Fort Collins, Colo. with its Merit Award in Professional Design in the design over $500k category.

S2O Design & Engineering was proud to be part of this dynamic team, providing design, planning, permitting, and construction services to the $12 million project. S20 Design was chosen because of its expertise with whitewater park development and familiarity with the market.

“We are very proud to have been a part of this paradigm changing whitewater park that includes the whitewater elements, a city park, and connections to the greenway that allow for walking and biking connections throughout the city,” said Scott Shipley, S2O Design’s founder and president.

The Poudre River Whitewater Park was recognized for directly addressing environmental, economic, and social needs.

The popular river park features two in-river whitewater play waves that attract kayakers, paddleboarders, and tubers. The upper feature is designed for beginners while the lower feature is for more advanced paddlers. A pedestrian bridge over the river provides a critical link to the regional trail system, providing park access for pedestrians and cyclists from across the community, and a prime vantage point for watching river enthusiasts working the waves in the river below.

Removal of a large diversion structure on the river was central to restoring the river morphology, enabling the river to function as a river as opposed to a small reservoir. Fish passage channels integrated into the whitewater features enable small native fish to move freely up and down the river. The park includes extensive native restoration of the riverbanks, including over 3,000 willow whips and other riparian and native species.

The park creates new economic activity in this industrialized area. In addition to a boost for local businesses from thousands of park users, new development emerged nearby almost immediately following completion of the park.

See more information about the award at https://www.aslacolorado.org/award/poudre-river-whitewater-park.

#riverrestoration #whitewaterpark #designaward #civilengineering #hydrology #paddlesports #kayak

 

PRESS RELEASE: S2O Design and Engineering Leading Design and Construction of the Houston Community College Regional Response Operation Center

Posted on by scottshipley

State-of-the-art facility will offer flood, swift-water, low-head dam training and more for region’s first responders.

 

 

Extreme flooding is the second deadliest of all weather-related hazards in the United States. In recent years few places have seen this more than the Gulf Coast from south Texas to Florida, which has experienced three 500-year flood events since 2015, each more devastating than the last. To address this trend, Houston Community College (HCC) is working with S2O Design and Engineering, the nation’s leading river engineering firm specializing in pumped whitewater facilities, to create the Regional Response Operation Center (RROC), the world’s most advanced urban flood simulator solely dedicated to training fire, law enforcement, and EMS responders on the technical skills necessary to perform life-saving water rescues.

Located near HCC’s campus in northeast Houston, the $25 million, 75,000-square-foot facility will feature a large swift-water channel, 25-acre dive and powerboat and flatwater training pond, and an urban flood simulator to allow rescue personnel to train in flooded streets and buildings. Massive pumps will move a high volume of water into the “streets and buildings,” simulating a flood event in a controlled environment in order to maintain participants’ safety. It will have the capacity to train 3,000 – 4,000 first responders per year.

“More often we apply our skillset crafting whitewater-based recreation facilities, but designing projects like this to train first responders is incredibly rewarding,” says Scott Shipley, founder of Lyons, Colo.-based S2O Design and Engineering. “Regional emergency response teams will no longer depend on finding a creek or river with proper conditions for this vital training.”

.    

S2O Design is providing overall project design and construction oversight, bringing highly specialized technical expertise with hydraulic engineering, site design, and construction. S2O Design’s team has designed and built some of the most advanced recirculating whitewater venues in the world, including the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, NC; Riversports Rapids in Oklahoma City; the Lee Valley Whitewater Center in London, home of the 2012 Olympics; and the forthcoming Montgomery Whitewater project in Montgomery, AL.

Design of the Regional Response Operation Center is loosely based on the S2O-designed New York State Preparedness Training Center in Oriskany, NY. Operated by the New York State Division of Homeland Security, the project is the only other mock urban flood training center in the country.

Dallas-based Huitt-Zollars, Inc. is the prime consultant of the project and architect of the training building. The project is in the final design and value engineering phase. Groundbreaking is projected for spring 2023.

About S2O Design & Engineering
Known for “reinventing whitewater,” Lyons, Colo.-based S2O Design and Engineering specializes in innovative river engineering, restoration, and community-focused whitewater park design. Our team of expert boater-engineers has planned, designed, and created some of the best in-stream whitewater parks as well as the largest and most dynamic recirculating whitewater parks in the world. S2O Design is led by Scott Shipley, a three-time Olympian and three-time World Cup Kayak Champion. For more information, visit S2ODesign.com.

 

PRESS RELEASE: Catawba River to See Whitewater and Recreation for First Time in a Century

Posted on by scottshipley

Dam Modification Spawning New Whitewater Park on the Catawba River

S2O Design & Engineering heads Great Falls-Dearborn Diversion Bypass Project, design solution will open the Catawba’s Long Bypass Reach for boating for the first time in over 100 years.

In Chester County, S.C. near the North and South Carolina border—an hour’s drive south of the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, NC—an engineering project is taking shape that will similarly attract paddlers and river enthusiasts throughout the region.

More than 100 years ago, the Great Falls-Dearborn Diversion Dam was built on the Catawba River for a hydroelectric plant, which created the Great Falls Dearborn Reservoir but also de-watered the 2.25-mile Long Bypass Reach below the dam. As part of the recent Catawba River Agreement and FERC re-licensing of the Catawba River for hydropower, a multi-million-dollar effort was launched to return water to the river for new recreational opportunities and to restore aquatic life and lowland habitat downstream of the dam.

S2O Design & Engineering, the world’s premier river engineering and whitewater design company, was tapped to devise a solution to allow flows through the diversion dam in a controlled manner and to provide safe bypass for paddlers who wish to traverse past the Diversion Dam into the beautiful corridor of class II-III whitewater. With construction past the half-way point, both water and boaters will soon be flowing down the Long Reach of the Catawba for the first time since 1907, bringing life and voice back to the rolling granite waves that are the historic “Great Falls” of South Carolina.

“This was an innovative approach to a complex challenge, and our team, including the project Owner and HDR Engineering, has done an outstanding job of navigating the engineering, construction, environmental, and regulatory variables with this project,” said Scott Shipley, S2O Design president and former kayak Olympian. “The results will bring a positive impact to the health and vitality of the river and create exciting recreation opportunities for paddlers across the region.”

Catawba IllustrationS2O Design’s solution to accomplish the multiple objectives features the creation of two release points or notches in the dam for recreational release flows and boaters to navigate into the Long Bypass Reach — a Main Channel that will convey water continuously into the reach, and a Recreation Bypass Channel that will provide a safe route for boaters during recreational releases.

The 400’ long Main Channel will take most of the flow down the eight feet of drop from the reservoir to the bottom pool, providing continuous connectivity between the reservoir and the river. To accommodate these flows, the design incorporates three innovative multi-stage drop structures that help control flows through the channel at various levels without creating dangerous recirculating hydraulics common in lowhead dams.

To provide the safest possible passage to the Long Bypass Reach at higher flows, S2O Design created the Recreation Bypass Channel that will have much less drop over a longer distance. This 1,075’ long passage features nine drop structures to control the rate and intensity of flows in the channel, a recovery pool and island with gradually sloped sides, and portage trails for boaters to exit the channel if needed. S2O Design also devised innovative applications in the Bypass Channel to prevent fish from being trapped at lower flows.

In creating this solution, S2O Design engineers and hydrologists completed conceptual designs, 1D and 2D computer modeling, construction documents, and construction visualization renderings. Working with engineers at the Czech Technical University in Prague, S2O Design also created a 1:20 scale physical model of both channels to study a range of flow conditions, and fine tune and validate that the design will meet the project’s stringent design and performance parameters.

S2O Design also commends American Whitewater, who represented paddling interests across the basin during the FERC relicensing process and was responsible for spearheading the effort to open up this reach of the Catawba River to boating. These and other enhancements are part of ongoing efforts by the local utility to further open local lakes and rivers to recreational use.

Construction on the Great Falls-Dearborn Diversion Bypass began in the spring of 2021 and is expected to be completed by fall 2022.

About S2O Design & Engineering

S2O Design is an engineering firm specializing in innovative river engineering, restoration, and community-focused whitewater park design. Our team of expert boater-engineers has planned, conceived, designed, and created some of the best in-stream whitewater parks as well as largest and most dynamic recirculating whitewater parks in the world. S2O Design is led by engineer, Olympian, and three-time World Cup Kayak Champion and Freestyle Kayak Champion Scott Shipley. For more information, visit S2ODesign.com.

###

John Gregory’s ICF Podcast: ‘Scott Shipley on Slalom Course Design”

Posted on by scottshipley

International Canoe Federation (ICF) podcast host John Gregory chats with S2O Design founder Scott Shipley about whitewater course design, RapidBlocks, and the way in which canoe slalom and paddlesport park venues have evolved.

Listen here – https://icfslalom.libsyn.com/scott-shipley-on-slalom-course-design – or wherever you get your podcasts!

PRESS RELEASE: S2O Design and Engineering Redesigns Iconic Competition Venue in Bratislava, Slovakia

Posted on by scottshipley

Famed Cunovo Water Sports Centre Completes Renovation with a Nod to the Future

      

 

Originally built in 1996 on an island in the Danube, the Cunovo Water Sports Centre in Bratislava, Slovakia hosted its first World Cup kayak event in 1997 and its most recent in 2013. To continue progressing with this growing sport, the Slovakian Federation tapped S2O Design and Engineering to lead a major renovation of the iconic dual-channel venue. S2O Design’s new channel configuration and incorporation of the RapidBlocs™ system gives Cunovo a better experience for recreation-level users, and adds a cache of features for advanced paddlers to play, train, and race at the highest levels.

“We love working on projects like this, but this one was a little more personal for me,” said S2O Design’s founder and president Scott Shipley, the three-time Olympian and World Cup slalom champion who also medaled for the U.S. at Cunovo in 1999. “We were fortunate to work closely with the Federation and with coaches who have been using the course for 20 years. That much insight and experience go a long way toward building a world-class whitewater competition venue that can evolve along with the sport.”

S2O Design’s work on the iconic venue included reconfiguring the channel layout and updating the obstacle structures. The unique parallel courses, which allow paddlers to change from one course to the other midway, had become outdated, and unfavorable conditions on the left channel made it largely unusable for recreational paddlers and not conducive for competitions.

S2O Design redesigned the left channel to integrate their patented RapidBlocs™ system, highly customizable three-dimensional obstacles that form the course’s waves, holes, drops, and eddies. The flexibility of the new system allows the operators to customize the configuration with the desired amount, type, and shape of features for any level paddler. The RapidBlocs system was also used for the newly built venue that hosted the 2021 Olympic Games.

Cunovo’s new competition channel configuration included repositioning the starting gate, adding a spectator-friendly features in front of the grandstand, and reconfiguring the bottom features on the racecourse.

The result of the renovation is better, more consistent whitewater throughout the channel, providing favorable conditions for both guided commercial operations as well as technical and endurance training and beginner to Olympic-level racing. The new configuration also makes Cunovo Whitewater Water Sports Centre an ideal venue for spectating and televised events.

“The reconstruction of the water slalom complex in Čunovo is an important milestone in the development of water sports in the Slovak Republic,” said Matus Stulajter, project manager at the Slovak Canoeing Federation. “In collaboration with Scott Shipley and the S2O Design team, we have managed to create a unique channel with elements that are nowhere else in the world. I believe that this unique project will contribute to the sustainable development of sports infrastructure in Slovakia.”

Cunovo Whitewater Park will host the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships Sept 22-26. The new course should help Slovakia return to a once-dominant position in whitewater slalom when it was part of the Czech Republic.

The Bratislava course is just one of many high-profile whitewater courses the S20 Design team is credited with designing, including the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., RiverSports Whitewater Park in Oklahoma City, and the Lee Valley White Water Centre in London, site of the 2012 Olympics. S2O Design is currently leading the design and development of Montgomery Whitewater, the new $50 million recirculating whitewater center in Montgomery, Ala.