Knights Landing Boat Launch Improvement Project

Construction Update

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Site Plan

CEQA- Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration

NEPA- Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact

Background

The Yolo County Parks Division operates and maintains the Knights Landing Boat Launch facility on behalf of the State of California Department of Fish and Wildlife under a long-term lease agreement. Plans to upgrade the property and site amenities have been in the works for over fifteen years. Most recently, in 2017, the County secured grant funding from the California Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) and supplemental funding from the Sport Fish Restoration Program to implement the long-awaited improvements. County staff have been working with federal and state permitting agencies over the last several years to obtain the required permits. All permits were received in 2019 and construction work commenced on June 1, 2020.

Project Summary

The project improvements are designed to enhance the visitor experience and will cut down on ramp queue times since two boats will be able to launch/return at the same time. Major improvements for this project include:

• Widening the existing concrete boat ramp
• Replacing existing floating dock with a gangway and boarding float allowing access on both sides
• New permanent restroom
• New water well and utility hook-ups for a park host
• Chip seal and restriping of parking lot, and new ADA parking stalls
• Placing riprap along the bank of Sycamore Slough to minimize erosion
• Planting new vegetation
• Removing old wooden dock pilings and concrete debris from Sycamore Slough

Construction Schedule

Construction began on June 1, 2020 and concluded on October 7, 2020. The site reopened to the public on October 9, 2020. Construction occurred in two general phases: out-of-water work (restrooms, parking lot, water well, etc.) and in-water work (boat ramp widening, placing rip rap along the bank, removing concrete debris from slough, etc.). Out-of-water work began on June 1, 2020 and continued through October 7, 2020. In-water work began on August 1 and continued through September 21, 2020. State and federal permits only allow in-water work from August 1-October 15, thus our construction window was extremely tight.