Lacamas Lake Is Down Six Feet and the Park's Northeast Trails Are Fenced. Those Are Two Different Projects.

Right now you can see shoreline at Round Lake that normally sits underwater. Starting at 8 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 21, the City of Camas began lowering Lacamas Lake and Round Lake by about six feet. It expected the water to reach its lowest point around Oct. 5. In the park's northeast corner, fencing and signs block the trails around a creek crossing where the bridge is gone. Clark County crews pulled it out in August.

The two are separate jobs run by two agencies. The City of Camas owns, operates and maintains the dam. Clark County manages the 312-acre park around it and is running the bridge project. Each project has its own reason, its own permit limits and its own finish date. So Lacamas Regional Park won't come back all at once. It will reopen in pieces, and the order is mostly settled.

Who is doing what

When the county announced the work in July, both closures were mapped to end on Nov. 15. That shared date has since split. The bridge is behind schedule, and the lake's finish line depends on rain.

A bridge that was fine for walkers

The old bridge on the main access road was built from two repurposed rail cars. After years of weather, those cars had rusted and corroded. The county never said it was unsafe to walk on. Evelyn Ives, project manager with the county's Parks and Lands Division, told The Columbian it was still considered safe for pedestrians. The worry was that it could collapse under a work truck. The county's July notice said the same thing. The bridge "remains safe for pedestrian use" but had to be replaced "to continue to provide safe vehicular access for maintenance vehicles."

Ives said the problem came to light a few years ago, when the county started inspecting every bridge in its park system because many were decades old.

The new bridge is sized for trucks, and it's narrower than the old one. The rail-car crossing was about 20 feet wide. The replacement is a prefabricated steel bridge with a concrete deck, 12 feet wide, and 5 to 10 feet longer on each side of the creek. The work also includes new concrete footings, native replanting and environmental mitigation in the work areas. Staff also found that runoff coming down toward the bridge had been eroding the ground at its edge.

The total cost is over $1 million. Here's the breakdown The Columbian reported:

• $811,000: the engineering estimate when the county went out to bid in March
• $485,000: the winning construction bid from Nutter Corp.
• $470,000: design, survey and permitting work by Dowl LLC
• $135,000: permits

Nutter's bid was $326,000 below the $811,000 the engineers had estimated for the project. Dowl's design and permitting contract cost almost as much as building the bridge. That makes sense here, because Ives described the whole park as environmentally sensitive. She said the project is still running about $70,000 under budget.

Why the site sat quiet in September

If you walked past the fencing last month and saw no crews, there's a reason. Environmental permits only allow work in the creek during a set window. So the old bridge and the debris from an old culvert had to come out in August, whether or not everything else was ready. Ives told The Columbian that on a normal project, the county would probably have just pushed back the start date.

Since then, the contractor has been working through submittals, the requests and orders for materials and equipment. Ives said those are normal on any construction project and have nothing to do with permits. In its Sept. 18 update, the county said on-site work would resume after the design calculations for the new foundation were reviewed and approved. The Nov. 15 finish date has slipped to late November or early December.

There isn't a way around the closure, either. Ives told The Columbian:

"The bridge is such a critical piece of this trail section that there isn't really a safe detour. Even though it's inconvenient, we had to close this section of trail."

The same story reported that the work site cuts the park in two. Cyclists who used the park as a safe route across the city can't get through right now. The paper also reported that after fencing on one trail was cut down again and again, Nutter Corp. stopped putting it back and left that trail open. The county still asks visitors to stay out of construction areas, even when no one is working.

The lake runs on rain

The drawdown itself happens every year. The City lowers both lakes so it can inspect and repair the dam. This year it's also replacing dam parts, which the City says is why it needs more time. The City's bid documents for project STM24001 list what's being replaced: spillway gates, actuators and the outlet valve at the Upper and Lower Lacamas dams.

The two agencies describe trail access near Round Lake differently. In July, the county said trails near the dam would stay open and City flaggers would direct walkers whenever equipment moved along them. The City's drawdown notice says the dam work will require "significant trail closures around Round Lake," on top of the county's bridge closure. The posted signs at the trailhead are the best guide on any given day. Questions about the dam side go to City of Camas Public Works.

Even after the dam work wraps up, the water won't come right back. The City says refilling the lakes takes several weeks, depending on how much rain falls. A dry November means a longer refill. A wet one could have Round Lake back to normal around the time the county finishes its bridge.

The order things should come back

Here's the likely sequence, based on what each agency has published:

1. Round Lake dam area trails. The mapped closure ends Nov. 15, though the City hasn't said whether that date has moved.
2. The northeast corner and the Lacamas Creek Trail crossing. Now expected in late November or early December, once the new bridge is in and the signs come down.
3. Normal water levels. Several weeks after refilling starts, depending on rain.

The rest of the park is still in use. It's open 7 a.m. to dusk at 3344 NE Everett St., and its 9.5 miles of trail are mostly outside the work zones. The county's park page also points out the potholes rock formations near the falls and the trails that connect to the Lacamas Heritage Trail along Lacamas Lake's south shore. The county's closure map adds one note worth knowing: "Unmarked trails exist. Use at your own risk."

Where to spend October weekends meanwhile

If you'd rather skip the fencing, the City's trails page lists Lacamas Creek Park and the Washougal River Greenway as other places to walk in Camas. Camas Parks & Recreation also has two free events coming up away from the lake.

• Zombie Dash Fun Run, Saturday, Oct. 17, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. This is the first one. It's held at the Legacy Lands Rose Property, 215 SE Leadbetter Rd. Runners try to hold on to their flags along a 1.25-mile obstacle course while volunteer zombies chase them. Volunteers have to be at least 12, bring their own costume, and complete a City application and background check ahead of time.
• Pumpkin Party, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. This year the Pumpkin Party is part of the Downtown Camas Association's Boo Bash. It takes over NE Cedar St. between 3rd and 4th avenues with games, pumpkin decorating and prizes, plus trick-or-treating throughout downtown.

The county says it will post schedule updates on its Lacamas Regional Park page as they come in. That page is the first place the bridge's new reopening date will show up.

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