Five locations along the length of U.S. Highway 12 and state Route 8 will begin substantial construction work as crews remove barriers to fish passage, beginning Monday and scheduled for completion in late summer of 2025.

The work will be concentrated between Montesano and McCleary, and will see roads constricted to one lane each way as work crews knock out work on one side, and than the other, said Washington Department of Transportation project engineer Jason Mettler.

“We’ve been doing fish passage work for quite some time. The fish passage work has really ramped up since 2013,” Mettler said in a phone interview. “In 2013, a federal injunction was levied against the state of Washington. The result of that is that we have to restore fish habitats by removing barriers to salmon on state highways.”

Statewide work

Similar projects are going statewide, Mettler said, with a deadline of 2030 for the most part. The projects here in the county will primarily replace culverts with larger passages, with less constrained space that makes it easier for the fish to go upstream.

“There’s another project north of Aberdeen/Hoquiam on 101 that is being administered by another office,” Mettler said. “Basically all over. There’s a lot of fish passage work that’s going on.”

About $88 million is budgeted for the project, of which more than $86 million comes from the American Rescue Plan Act with the remainder coming from the state, Mettler said.

“There’s kind of grouping of reasons that lead to a culvert being a barrier to fish passage. The most common is that it’s too small,” Mettler said. “The goal is to restore as near as a natural stream through the site as possible.”

Removing culverts will eliminate an obstacle for fish seeking to go upstream to spawn, Mettler said. “The projects will include essentially installing new structures that create a larger opening. In most cases on this project that means bridges,” Mettler said. “The goal at the end of a fish passage project is that you provide unimpeded passage to all fish at all life stages.”

By removing these barriers, the intent is to create more habitat space for fish, Mettler said.

“I think that, long term by opening up potential habitat for the fish that may not have been accessible previously — the overall goal is increase their habitat for rearing and spawning,” Mettler said. “If you’re mimicking the stream both upstream and downstream at the site, you should in theory be able to pass any fish present.”

What it means for you

In construction zones, speed limits will be lower, and the highway will be down to one lane in each direction.

“I believe that it was in 2018, there was a similar project done on SR8 west of McCleary. It was done very similarly to how this is being approached,” Mettler said. “There were some backups but all in all, traffic was able to move well.”

Crews will replace the culverts on one side of the highway, switch the traffic lanes over to the completed side, and begin work on the other side, Mettler said.

“The crews will construct crossovers at the medians,” Mettler said. “Each site will be reduced from two lanes down to one. We will have a speed reduction from 60 mph down to 50 mph.”

Work will be year-round, Mettler said, though some of the work in the water will be constrained by seasonal conditions.

“The challenging element on these types of projects that has work that has to be done in the water is there’s a limited time during the summer that can be done,” Mettler said. “It has to do with the — one, obviously, you have lower seasonal flows. It really depends on when it’s least impactful for the fish.”

The work is expected to be finished by late summer of 2025, Mettler said.

Contact Senior Reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@thedailyworld.com.