The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that the completion of the Ni-les’tun tidal marsh restoration project on Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge will be delayed until the summer of 2011. Originally scheduled for completion in September 2010, the project is being delayed a year due to complications in completing the undergrounding of the Coos-Curry Electrical Cooperative transmission line under the Coquille River. “This large restoration project involves three simultaneous major construction projects and thus relies on precision and timely work that is choreographed among three different contractors,� said Roy W. Lowe, Project Leader for the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex. The delay in completing the undergrounding of the transmission line has postponed the initiation of the removal of the outer dikes, which must be completed by mid-September during the last low-high tides of the year. “Although we are extremely disappointed that we are not able to complete the restoration this year, it was the right decision to make�, said Lowe. The underground electrical system needs to be installed, tested and secured prior to removal of the existing above ground system and restoration of tidal flows over the refuge, and given the existing delays to date, final testing would not have been possible in the time remaining.

In the meantime, work continues on the North Bank Lane road improvements and interior tidal marsh construction activities. By the end of September the majority of the restoration construction inside the outer dikes will also be completed. Completion of the road improvements has always been planned for the summer of 2011 and now the restoration project will join that schedule.