Westway Construction Inc., of Spokane, has begun work on a $300,000 project to stabilize the banks of Latah Creek at the city of Spokane's Creek at Qualchan Golf Course.

The city says that in the winter of 1998, a 50-year flood damaged the creek's banks, necessitating repairs. Then, it says, extremely heavy ice floods in the winter of 2008-2009 destroyed previous repair work that had been done.

Ryan West, quality control manager for Westway, says the company will place riprap at the base of the banks to hold root balls in place, then add geotextile wrapped "soft gabions" of native soil above the riprap and anchor in the gabions with four-foot wooden stakes to stabilize the banks. A gabion is a basket or case filled with earth or rocks and often is used to build a support or abutment.

"It's like a burrito wrap of soil," West says. "It works well."

It took some time to complete permitting before the project could begin, West says.

"Latah Creek is fairly sensitive," he says.

Westway's equipment, which is parked along U.S. 195 near its intersection with Meadowlane Road, has been visible from the highway for several weeks, and the company handled earlier repair work on the creek's banks, West says.

He says his brother, Jason West, is principal owner of Westway Construction. Their father started the company here in 1990 after splitting off from a Seattle company that their grandfather started.