An $8.8 million habitat restoration project will disrupt traffic in Whatcom County this summer.
The project, sponsored by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), will remove a fish barrier located along the Mt. Baker Highway and replace it with a single-span bridge. The project will help regain an estimated 3 miles of salmon habitat.
Construction on the project is slated to begin sometime in May and is expected to be complete in November this year, according to WSDOT.
Currently, a 6-by-6-foot concrete box culvert interrupts part of the Squalicum Creek waterways in the area. The creek, with headwaters in the Cascade foothills that discharges into Bellingham Bay, primarily hosts pink, chum and coho salmon and cutthroat trout, which struggle to pass the culvert. State contractors will remove the culvert and replace it with a 150-foot, fish-passable, single-span bridge.
Maps from the state Department of Transportation show detours around the closure between Britton Road and Noon Road. (Map courtesy of the Washington State Department of Transportation)
In order to install the bridge, contractors will fully close state route 542, or Mt. Baker Highway, between Britton and Noon roads. The total closure impacts just under a quarter-mile of road, but will require a major detour for commuters and residents traveling east of Bellingham.
Over the last three decades, WSDOT has worked to remove fish barriers and reconnect streams, disconnected by the state highway system.
