Dix Corp., the longtime Spokane-based specialty contractor, is working with a Montana company on a massive project thats intended to help restore native fish runs to the dam-blocked headwaters of the Deschutes River in central Oregon.


The project involves constructing a 270-foot underwater tower on the upstream side of Round Butte Dam, which is owned jointly by Portland General Electric and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs. The dam generates power and regulates the flow of the Deschutes, a tributary of the Columbia River.


A $60 million contract was awarded last August to Barnard Construction Co., of Bozeman, Mont., by the dams owners. Dix Corp., acting as a subcontractor, is handling a roughly $20 million portion of the work that will include building a fish-handling facility.


The underwater tower thats to be constructed will draw water from the surface of Lake Billy Chinook and pipe it to an existing turbine intake nearly 300 feet deep, says Armin Vogt, a project manager for Dix.


The turbine intake currently draws cooler water from the depths of Lake Billy Chinook, which means the reservoir fills up with warmer water, eventually raising the temperature of the Deschutes to levels harmful to some native fish species.


The selective withdrawal project is intended to draw water from the surface and blend it with deeper water to maintain more constant temperatures in the Deschutes River, Vogt says.


Because current caused by drawing water from the surface will attract fish, Dix will construct a fish-collection facility at the top of the underwater tower that will allow fisheries managers to segregate fish that should proceed downstream, such as migrating steelhead and salmon, from fish that should remain above the dam, such as bull trout.


Vogt says he expects that construction of the fish collection facility will begin in December while work on the tower is still under way.


The tower and the fish collection facility are scheduled to begin operating in March 2009. At that time, steelhead that will have been planted in Lake Billy Chinook from elsewhere on the Deschutes should be ready to go downstream, Vogt says.


Portland General Electric says chinook salmon also will be planted in the Deschutes headwaters, and resident kokanee salmon are expected to convert to sockeye salmon as they once again will be able to go downstream to the ocean.


Adult salmon and steelhead should begin returning from the ocean in 2010 and 2011, PGE says. Theyll be collected in a regulating reservoir downstream from the dam and brought around the dam so they can spawn farther upstream.


Were excited about the future for these fish, says Mark Fryburg, a PGE spokesman.


Dix Corp., which was founded in 1946, specializes in heavy industrial construction and equipment installation. The company recently installed a fish-passage weir at Ice Harbor Dam and refitted turbines at Lower Granite Dam. The contracts for both projects on the Snake River totaled $21.5 million.


Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at mikem@spokanejournal.com.