Tom Pearce, communications, 206-492-9555

$11.5 million project adds four new culverts that will open up habitat in California Creek

FERNDALE – With the reopening of State Route 548/Grandview Road early Saturday, Aug. 29, the main work on the Interstate 5 and SR 548 fish passage project to install four culverts is complete.

Contractor crews from Kiewit, working for the Washington State Department of Transportation, finished installing the final culvert under SR 548 and repaving the highway just west of Portal Way on schedule. Earlier this summer, they also put new culverts under both directions of I-5 between Birch Bay-Lynden Road and SR 548/Grandview Road, and under Zell Road.

The prefabricated concrete culverts replace old, small, round pipes that carried sections of California Creek under the roadways. These created a barrier to fish passage. The new culverts will have natural stream beds, opening about 6.5 miles of spawning and rearing habitat for coho salmon, steelhead, cutthroat trout and other aquatic life.

Some tasks remain Crews still have some work to finish, including barrier installation, creek work and restoring native vegetation. People traveling on I-5 south of Birch Bay-Lynden Road, on Zell Road north of Willeys Lake Road and on SR 548 near Portal Way may encounter lane reductions, but the roadways will be open. Work should finish by late September.

Earlier work The project began with the closure of the main lanes of southbound I-5 for about a week in June, with traffic shifting onto a single-lane bypass in the median between the northbound and southbound lanes. In July the northbound I-5 mainline shifted onto the bypass for about a week and Zell Road closed for 10 days. All work was completed on time and the roadways reopened on schedule.