In-stream construction on the new Whitewater Park through Smelter Rapid is a little behind schedule, but there’s optimism that it’ll be done by a March 31 deadline.

And the boating community is excited to see what the finished product looks like.

“It’s going to be a great park,” Andy Corra, co-owner of Four Corners River Sports, said Friday, a day after he’d toured the site along the Animas River at Santa Rita Park and talked to engineers. He said Smelter Rapid will be “pretty impressive” at high water.

“We’re definitely going to have some big features up there,” he said.

Originally, the project – $1.3 million was allocated for it, but it’s under budget at this point – was scheduled to be done by March 1. But it became obvious quickly, particularly after December brought cold weather not conducive for pouring grout – that that deadline was unrealistic, said Cathy Metz, director of Durango Parks and Recreation.

Metz said that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was amenable to extending a deadline for having machinery out of the river to March 31. Weather permitting, it appears the new deadline is within reach.

“We’re on schedule,” said Dan Woolley, project manager with S2O Design and Engineering of Lyons, the firm the city of Durango hired to design the whitewater features. “We needed the extension. With that extension, we’re in good shape.”

Metz said contractor Ted Seipel Construction of Eagle has been working almost every day since construction began Nov. 2 – other than Thanksgiving and Christmas – in an effort to get the project done before spring runoff.

She said that even if the deadline isn’t made, there are contingencies. Either work will stop and continue next winter, or the city will ask for another extension. In any case, Metz said, the river will be open for paddling when spring runoff begins.

“Certainly, I am starting to hear from some river users,” she said Friday. “There’s definitely a lot of watchful waiting going on.”

But mostly it’s eager anticipation.

“It’s the first time we’ve invested in the boating community in a significant way,” Corra said.

Four bank-to-bank structures – rock laid on bedrock and affixed in place with concrete – are being set in the river. Two are finished and one is 85 percent done, Woolley said.

The fourth, called “Top Drop” by boaters, is well underway. Woolley pointed across the river to where construction was in full swing, noting that 400 large boulders were being placed in steps to protect the bank when high water rushes through the rapid.

Top Drop, as the name implies, is the first feature boaters will encounter. At low water everyone will go down the same channel. At moderate and high water, it will become a little trickier, but at that point, water will spill over into a left-side “sneak route” that less skilled boaters can use, Woolley explained.

Corra described the other three features, in river-runner’s order: Corner Pocket (like Top Drop, a more advanced section), Ponderosa (a new river feature with intermediate features) and Clocktower (a “surf wave” at higher water).

At each of the four structures, the river was channeled right or left during construction this winter while the opposite side of the riverbed was remade and then set in concrete.

When the right side was finished, the river flow was switched to that side, and the left side was set.

The project was a long time in planning. As far back as 2010, the city arranged for large boulders from construction at the Glacier Club to be brought to Smelter Rapid, where they sat for three-plus years. The National Guard hauled the boulders as a training exercise.

One aim of the project is to again make Durango a world-class whitewater paddling destination and race venue. S2O Design, founded by three-time Olympic kayaker Scott Shipley, has helped design several world-class venues, including the 2012 Olympic site in London and the National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C.

“There’ll be fun rapids. There’ll be fun waves,” Woolley said. “The boaters of Durango have a lot to look forward to.”

Metz emphasized that finishing in-stream work is just the start. Construction on the park that parallels that stretch of river will begin soon, probably by May.

Among the park features: A seating area with shade structure at the river bend; a changing area next to the existing restrooms; landscaping in the park and along the shoreline; designated pathways down to the river; and reconstruction of the Animas River Trail from its current 10-foot width to 14.

One of the park’s major highlights is only partly related to river-running. Creating a whitewater park gives the city a water right, called a recreational in-channel diversion, that protects a continuous flow.

So the fly-fishing community, for one, is fine with the temporary disturbance to fish and the temporarily dirty water caused by construction.

“We are fully supportive,” said Durangoan Ty Churchwell, backcountry coordinator for the Trout Unlimited national organization and a board member of the local Five Rivers chapter of Trout Unlimited. “We wanted the water right to ensure water flows through forever.”

The stretch of river from the DoubleTree Hotel to around Walmart has been designated a gold-medal water for fishing.

johnp@durangoherald.com