Design Services

Fishway facilities incorporating Walaman fishway products are designed to provide for upstream fish migration at the site while meeting other multipurpose design requirements such as transport, drainage, amenity and environmental values. Whereas the adopted fishway design may be relatively simple, the appropriate level of planning and design effort and expertise should be applied in order to achieve these outcomes and to ensure that an effective fishway facility is developed.

Planning and design of fishway facilities for a project is best undertaken in a number of phases, leading from concept design through to detailed design and implementation. An intermediate preliminary design phase may be required in more elaborate projects. Doing this work in phases is beneficial as it provides the best opportunity to achieve the following benefits for the project:

  • provides expert input to meet multipurpose design requirements at project start
  • allows progressive concept development, assessment, approvals and stakeholder input
  • minimises site assessment and detailed design effort in early project stages
  • reduces unnecessary financial commitment to projects that may not proceed

Planning and design services for development of facilities incorporating Walaman Fishways can be undertaken by James Cook University School of Engineering and Physical Sciences. JCU Engineering provides a full range of services for this work, including:

  • aquatic connectivity and impact assessment for waterways
  • fish passage planning and design for linear infrastructure
  • fish passage and multipurpose design for waterway structures
  • field prototype and hydraulic laboratory testing and evaluation of fishways
  • design concepts, development and evaluation of fish passage devices
  • industry guidelines, peer review, practitioner training, and community collaboration

Assembly drawings and a schedule of prefabricated fishway products developed in the design phase are used to place orders for manufacture of fishway components and for installation of the fishway during construction of the facility.

Planning and design guidance for evaluation of fish migration barriers and design of fish passage facilities is provided in Culvert fishway planning and design guidelines (Kapitzke 2010).