PACIFIC NORTHWEST EDITION
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April 17 2016 Vol. I • No. 8
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded in 1957.” Your Pacific Northwest Connection – Patrick Kiel – 1-877-7CEGLTD – pkiel@cegltd.com
Washington Removes Barriers, Improves Fish Passage By Andrea Watts CEG CORRESPONDENT
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is currently improving the traffic flow for a number of Western Washington residents. Yet these residents don’t use the roadways; instead they travel in the streams flowing beneath the state’s roadways and bridges. Just as improperly designed roadways result in backups or accidents when there are too many cars on the road, so too can improperly designed culverts impend a fish’s passage downstream or upstream — and in the worst case, lead to their death. For a number of years, culverts weren’t designed or installed with fish in mind, but once science revealed the detrimental effects of improperly designed culverts upon fish migration, WSDOT began including fish-friendly culverts in new projects. In 1991, the agency started to replace the older culverts; however, the replacement was dictated on the availability of funds and whether the replacement was part of a larger roadway project. With nearly 1,000 barriers needing replaced, and seeing slow progress, 21 Western Washington tribes (Lummi, Nooksack, Swinomish, Upper Skagit, Sauk-Suiattle, Stillaguamish, WSDOT photo Tulalip, Muckleshoot, Puyallup, Nisqually, Squaxin Island, Removing the culvert required excavating the fill down to the streambed. Crews could work safely without havsee FISH page 8
ing to contend with traffic because the roadway was shut down and traffic was detoured onto nearby roads.
Osprey’s New Housing Enables Inspections at Dent Bridge An environmental innovation and agency collaboration may finally allow the inspection of the overhead cable saddles on the 1,500-ft. (457.2 m)-long Dent Bridge spanning the Dworshak Reservoir on the North Fork of the Clearwater River north of Orofino, Idaho. Four new aluminum platforms were installed Jan. 25 to 29, at the highest points on the bridge, holding the nests of federally protected osprey. A small amount of the old nesting material also was transferred to encourage the birds to start building their nests on the new platforms. As a complex bridge design, the Federal Highway Administration requires inspections of the suspension
The osprey nest on the bridge before the new platforms were installed. The birds were building their nests over the saddles, obstructing the inspections.
bridge every two years. “Inspectors needed to check the 45-year-old bridge, but could not inspect the top of the towers because of the nesting osprey,” said Dan Gorley, bridge asset management engineer of the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD). “Efforts to remove the nests to clear the area for inspection only resulted in the birds returning to rebuild the nests in the same spot.” The birds were building their nests over the saddles, obstructing the inspections. see PLATFORM page 10