Skagit County completed two culvert replacements located on Fisher Creek, one under Starbird Road and the second under Cedardale Road. The replacement efforts took nearly 17 months to complete, requiring intermittent closures of both roads regularly. The previous culvert under Starbird Road was a 60-inch concrete pipe by 100-foot-long concrete pile culvert with large wood weirs extending over 200 feet downstream of the outlet. The new structure is a 21-foot buried three-sided box culvert. The box culvert under Cedardale Road was previously eight feet wide by eight feet tall and 100 feet long with a 52-foot long fishway ladder structure installed by Washington state in 1999. The new structure is a single span 130-foot-long prestressed concrete bridge. Both of the original culverts were deemed fish barriers for Endangered Species Act listed anadromous fish including Chinook and Steelhead.
Culverts are concrete or metal tunnel-like structures along waterways running under roads, railways, and other obstructions, and play an important role in flood protection and fish passage. Aging culverts were commonly built too small for adequate water and fish passage and now require replacement to prevent failure and possible road damage. Fisher Creek is home to Chinook, Coho, Chum Salmon, Steelhead, Sea-run, and resident Trout. Because the previous culverts were inadequate for fish passage, fish were unable to travel upstream past the structures for habitat. Completion of both culvert replacement projects opens approximately 2,000 feet upstream for juvenile rearing habitat and increased the carrying capacity of the waterway.
Funding Sources
These projects were made possible due to over $6,000,000 in grant funding from the state and federal government. Public Works received $240,749 from the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office for the design phase, and $5,947,355 from the U.S. Department of Transportation Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-saving Transportation (PROTECT) Program, allocated through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
