DESCRIPTION
Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force, in coordination with the landowner, Dan Stotsenberg, conducted a restoration project replacing a fish passage barrier culvert with a structure capable of allowing all stages of salmonid life forms and other aquatic species total access to 0.55 miles of habitat to an unnamed tributary of the Mox Chuck Slough in the Lower Chelahis River basin. The anadromous salmonids, include chum, coho, steelhead, native and sea-run cutthroat trout. The overall goal is to provide habitat access to all species of anadromous salmonids at all life stages access to spawning and rearing habitat while in there fresh water life cycle. This project removed 3 undersized corrugated steel culverts that have failed and replace them with an aluminum bottomless arch box culvert with a span of 18 ft.2 in., a rise of 4 ft. 7 in. , 36 ft. long. The culvert footings are precast T shaped structures that will add another 36 inches to the rise, making it 7 feed 7 inches. Roughly 18 inches of fill was added over the top of the culvert to match the existing road. This design was by Pat Powers the licensed engineer. Fred Becker and Lonnie Crumley from Streamworks Consulting oversaw the construction installation and Brumfield Construction Installed the structure and made the precast T shaped footings. The stream was bypassed using a 6 inch diesel pump. Fish screens were added both upstream and downstream of the work site.
After the project had ended the upstream waterline became exposed and Brad Davis Construction came in to replace nd burry the waterline three feet under the streambed. This was done with an amendment to the FPA and with the approval of DFW. Davis Construction was familiar with working with plumbing and waterlines in streams. At this point the culvert is working well and the habitat is mending and should be functioning as designed.