ODOT Study

ODOT Study Finds CMS Techniques Lower Cost and Protect Environment

Always looking to improve processes and lower operating costs, ODOT engaged Ron Wine and Bill Holdren Co-Owners of Channel Maintenance Systems to learn more about something called the Palmiter Stream Management Technique. The concept has the potential to save operations costs when performing routine channel migration and bank erosion maintenance near public infrastructure.  Ohio DOT then hired Ohio University (OU) to vet these natural stream management techniques against current safety, design, flow, and capacity requirements of modern transportation infrastructure and compare it to typical erosion control techniques in this setting such as dump rock, gabions and retaining walls. The OU team toured and inspected multiple CMS project sites conducted over the past 5 years throughout Ohio.

OU discovered that when faced with stream bank erosion near transportation infrastructure, strategic placement of woody debris coupled with the strategic removal of opposite bank vegetation resulted in natural channel migration away from the infrastructure, and the reconstitution of the missing bank.  The full report can be found here.  Ohio DOT plans to work with CMS in the coming months to investigate these natural “green” stream management techniques further. The project will include education and outreach to maintenance staff, and pilot projects in a variety of settings statewide to further assess its viability as a low cost and effective solution for channel migration.

Also, back in 1982 the US Army Corps investigated the techniques employed by CMS  and concluded, in part, the Pamiter technique, “…appeared effective while at the same time being inexpensive and ecologically sensible.”  Further, the technique “.corrects [erosion] problems without disrupting the food supply or damaging the habitat of fish and wildlife.” 

CMS Co-Owners Ron Wine and Bill Holdren were personally trained by George Palmiter and conducted projects along the Little Miami and Stillwater Scenic Rivers and Greenville Creek for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in the 1980’s. Mr. Palmiter passed away in 2012.