Latest video:
David Carlos takes monthly photographs and video via drone to capture the progress of the fish and wildlife restoration project at Ballinger Park. A partnership between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the City of Mountlake Terrace, the project includes planting of more than 2,000 native trees and shrubs, redirecting Hall Creek to a new, more-stable channel, and constructing boardwalks, trails and footpaths.
Hello – is anything going to be done or being done to mitigate the flooding? The new boardwalk and other areas of the park were/are pretty much inaccessible due to the flooding in the area (even before it went up all the way to areas I have never seen before), and what a shame to have done this many months of work and have much of it not accessible during these months. I figured the state of the lake in the winter months was taken into account when these locations were decided on. The pictures included above pretty much paint the picture of what I am describing.
City of MLT Stormwater Program Manager said this: The whole site is in a floodplain, and unfortunately, not all the paths will be useable at all times of year. This is a habitat restoration project only and did not address seasonal flooding in the design. A hydraulic study by the US Army Corps of Engineers was performed as part of the feasibility study for the project.
Thank you for the great photos. Does anyone know where I can put a simple request for improvements to the paths?
If you look at the “Looking south” photo, the path in front of the Lake Ballinger Center only needs a bit of gravel to the left added to complete the path. This would connect the east to west path from the new car bridge to the north to south asphalt path that was made a couple years ago that goes from each parking lot.
You can see old gravel there, but it’s not enough to walk through due to the low flooded spots.
I know there are other items to improve but this one is a quick fix
Stormwater Program Manager Laura Reed said she will forward the comments about adding gravel to the paths to the Parks supervisor for her consideration. “There are more paths being designed for the park in a future project; but given the natural amount of flooding on the site, expect that some of the paths near the lake will likely always be seasonally flooded,” Reed said.
Sounds good, thank you Teresa.