U.S. National Whitewater Center
Outdoor Recreational Center
Charlotte, NC 
Cultural and Community > Recreation
General Contracting, Preconstruction
U.S. National Whitewater Center (USNWC) is a unique outdoor recreational center and whitewater park located within a 300+/- acre property in Mecklenburg County. The main attraction is the man-made, recirculating, multi-channel, whitewater course, which was inspired by whitewater courses built for the Olympics, like Penrith Whitewater Stadium in Australia. USNWC is the first of its kind in the United States and it ranks largest in the world. In addition to kayaking, rafting, and canoeing, USNWC has 11 miles of mountain-biking trails, a climbing center, walking/running trails, plus a conference/welcome center, retail store, and a restaurant (The Eddy).
USNWC offers swift water rescue training (Charlotte firefighters train at this facility), high ropes training, and a challenge course (great for teambuilding exercises). Construction at the USNWC consisted of two primary components: two whitewater channels (four segments) and nine stand-alone buildings. The concrete, steel, and wood buildings add up to approximately 40,785 square feet of space. The six-foot deep whitewater channels are cast-in-place concrete with 2:1 slopes. The average width of the channels is 35 feet, all of which translates into 4,000 linear feet (or 500,000 square feet) of channel space filled with 14 million gallons of water!
The project broke ground in May 2005 and the $25+ million complex was completed in December 2006.
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