Keeping a Dead Dog Alive

August 6, 2009

Inlander, Kevin Taylor

There is a place known as Dead Dog Hole on the Spokane River where whitewater kayakers, sitting in their blunt, fluorescent-hued boats, can appear to be sort of crazed and brightly colored water ouzels dipping and cart-wheeling into fast-running river currents, holding their breath until they pop to the surface again.

They may have to hold their breath for as long as two years before they find out if a new bridge over the Spokane River at the state line will kill one of their most popular playboating spots.

At 70-years-old, Bridge No. 5515, better known as the old Harvard Road Bridge, is falling apart, has broken hinges, is reduced to two lanes and restricted to vehicles weighing under 10,000 pounds.

Construction of a new, $11.2 million bridge begins next summer. Bridge projects are typically run past an array of agencies such as Ecology and Fish and Wildlife to explore any impacts to the river. Spawning habitat for native redband trout was an issue for this bridge.

It came as a surprise that the span might also have an impact on whitewater kayakers, who have an increasing presence on the river.

“It’s the first time we’ve had this level of interest from the canoe and kayaking community on one of our projects,” says Neil Carroll, Spokane County Bridge Engineer.

“This is a first,” agrees longtime kayaker John Patrouch, who is also an engineer.

Patrouch and fellow kayaker Chris Hoffer attended one of the county’s public hearings last summer in Liberty Lake and later went up to talk with Carroll about the effects the new bridge — especially the location of one of the new piers — might have on Dead Dog.

“They said they had no idea people used that spot,” says Patrouch, who has been paddling in Dead Dog since he and a few friends ventured there in 1990.

Here’s how it works: As the river comes sluicing around a bend out of Idaho, it pours over a large rock near the north bank and shoots down an incline in the river bottom.

“Apparently, it is a manifesting of bedrock,” Patrouch says. “There is an abrupt, upstream lift to form a perfect hole.”

So perfect that Gary Lacey, the designer hired for the proposed whitewater park downtown, plans to copy it, Patrouch says.
While many whitewater features on the Spokane River have short life spans depending on river flow (in cubic feet per second), Dead Dog lasts all spring and into early June. It is there as low as 6,500 cfs, gets really good at 10,000 cfs and has not yet revealed an upper limit.

“During the record flows last year, at 41,000 cfs, Dead Dog was still in,” Hoffer says.

Add in the dynamics for performing stunts and tricks, plus an eddy that allows kayakers to rest right outside the hole, and Dead Dog becomes a destination site that attracts professional whitewater kayakers and shout-outs on playboating Websites.

The bridge is just downstream from Dead Dog, and kayakers can wind up under it if they are shot out of the hole. The old bridge rests on six piers that have elongated “shoes,” as it were. The new bridge has only two supports that will be cylindrical, much like the ones on highway overpasses.

Hoffer and Patrouch were concerned that the location of the north support right behind the hole, and its rounded shape, could be trouble for kayakers shooting down on the current.

“We had situated a bridge with three equal spans,” Carroll says. After listening to the kayakers’ concerns, he was able to tweak the length of the spans and thus move the north support some 10 or 12 feet away from the hole.

Hoffer and Patrouch are impressed with Carroll and the county.

“They went back and did a redesign — I know it added some cost,” Patrouch says.

“We just wanted to get our voice heard. Neil met with us. We stood on that rock and talked, and he was very receptive to our concerns,” Hoffer says.

“On a project like this with so many people affected, sometimes requirements or desires can be conflicting. We do our best to be responsive,” Carroll says.

Still, it’s uncertain if such major construction will affect the hydraulics of Dead Dog Hole.

“I think we’ll be down there with donuts for the crane operators,” Hoffer says.