Two multi-year projects to improve fish habitat in both Little Minter Creek and Purdy Creek in the Key Peninsula will cross paths this summer. While one project is finishing up, the other is getting started.
This work opens up access to important spawning and rearing habitat to more salmon and steelhead at all life stages. This includes areas that have not been accessed in years. Our efforts to correct fish passage barriers in places like Little Minter Creek and Purdy Creek are making an important contribution to salmon and steelhead recovery in Washington state.
Both projects require some temporary detours, closures and traffic shifts that Pierce and Kitsap County travelers will want to plan for. Here are the details:
SR 302 Little Minter Creek
An old box culvert in Little Minter Creek |
Long-term closure of SR 302
A longer around-the-clock closure of a portion of SR 302 is scheduled early to mid-August. This will allow crews to install two new culverts in Little Minter Creek under SR 302 between 123rd Avenue Northwest and 118th Avenue Northwest. Passenger vehicles will follow a local signed detour. Oversized trucks and semi-trucks will follow a detour using SR 16 and SR 3 through Belfair. We will announce the closure dates on the project website once the contractor schedule is finalized.
On the left is the detour passenger vehicles will take during the SR 302 closure,
and on the right is the detour for freight traffic |
SR 16/SR 302 Spur at Purdy Creek
Purdy Creek under the SR 302 Spur |
On Monday, Aug. 1, paving will begin on Purdy Lane Northwest from 144th Street Northwest to the SR 302 Spur. Purdy Lane Northwest will be used as the detour for an entire year while crews remove the old culvert under SR 302 Spur. The old culvert will be replaced with a 77-foot-long bridge.
The detour on Purdy Lane Northwest will be in place from early September 2022 until August 2023. No parking will be allowed along the detour during this time. To help keep traffic moving, the detour route will have a temporary signal in place at the intersection of 144th Street Northwest and Purdy Lane Northwest.
The detour route for the work near SR 302 Purdy Creek |
Why do these projects take so long?
Improving stream habitat for fish takes time, and each project is unique. We work closely with the Department of Fish and Wildlife on fish passage projects. During construction, they guide us on when we can allow crews to be in the water to remove the old stuff and put the new stuff in without stressing out the fish. These timeframes are called “fish windows” or “in-water work”. These “fish windows” set the timeframe on when everything else can be done and they are there to protect the fish. If we miss those windows because of weather or supply chain issues, it can easily set a project schedule back an entire year. This is what happened on Little Minter Creek. We ran into supply chain issues that pushed us beyond our “fish window” and the work was pushed into this summer. We will do our best to manage this schedule and provide updates along the way if anything changes.
Designing Fish Passage Projects
Watch this video to learn more about the elements of structure design
and why those may make a project timeline shorter or longer.
Original source can be found here.