Mat-Su Borough Moves Forward on Willow Creek Ice Dam Mitigation Plan

Last night, the borough assembly approved opening up the Willow Creek channel to alleviate flooding upstream. We started just downstream of the Dineke Bridge and opened up a 40-foot-wide and about 8-foot-deep channel filled with water.

Immediately we could see relief from under the bridge, water surging downstream. We cleaned out as far under the bridge as we could, and then as you can see here, the heavy equipment moved upstream and we began opening up the channel here.

We've got water now boiling out from under the ice, coming downstream and passing underneath the bridge and heading down towards the Susitna River.

That's exactly what we're trying to achieve. We're going to continue digging this channel upstream until we reach the point where the water has departed the stream and gone on to private property and onto our roads and has created flooding.

We're making great progress.

Made progress today. I don't think we'll finish today, but we'll finish tomorrow or possibly the next day, and we'll have this river back opened up and the flooding alleviated.