It didn’t take long for fish to find their way back to Chain-up Creek once the barriers were removed.

For years, a small concrete culvert and steep drop-off made it nearly impossible for fish to return home.


But a brand new bridge along Mount Baker Highway has revived Chain-up Creek and made the journey home to native habitat easier for spawning fish.


Fish have already been spotted and photographed swimming in the creek only a month after WSDOT completed work on the new bridge and reopened the creek.


During construction, crews were careful to rebuild the creek bed. We strategically placed all the boulders, rocks and logs to mimic and foster the natural flow of a creek. And it’s paying off.

We worked all summer to shift a half-mile stretch of Mount Baker Highway away from the Nooksack River and build the new bridge at Chain-up Creek. We recently opened the new bridge, several miles east of Glacier, to traffic.

It’s not just the fish who benefit from the new bridge, either. These improvements will make a big difference to drivers and residents in the area. The new bridge and rebuilt creek will reduce the risk of flood damage to the road and reduce the potential for emergency road closures. They should prevent costly emergency repairs and repeated lane closures. It’s a win-win for drivers and the environment.

by guest blogger Jamie Holter

Scenes like this made the news in January 2009 

But something else was happening near Highway 202 between Fall City and Snoqualmie. Tokul Creek, swollen by the sheer volume of water, changed course and, rather than meandering nicely under Highway 202, it redirected itself and began to erode the riverbank, leaving the banks and the local road unstable.

Engineers are now concerned that heavy fall rain in 2010 will push more debris up against the old concrete piers that support a bridge that’s no longer there.

The debris plugs the water flow and it backs up eroding the bank which can lead to more damage.
During the first week of September, contractor crews from Amir Ahmadi’s Project office began work on a bridge scour repair job on Tokul Creek. 
 
Over the next month, under emergency permits from the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Army Corps of Engineers, dozens of workers will be on site to remove large amounts of wood and debris trapped near the bridge. They will remove the old concrete bridge piers and armor the new existing bridge piers with large rocks.

But it’s not that easy. You don’t just come in with bulldozers. Biologists are on site to trap and relocate fish. They use this porous curtain to let water pass through but not the fish.


This rainbow trout was one of the first caught and taken downstream.


Then we install something called an aqua dam, a large inflatable filled water to make the area downstream fish and water-free. Pipes installed in the area take the water around the aquadam to a place downstream and out of our work area.

Here is a wide shot of a full inflated aquadam. Isn’t it strange looking?



Over the next few days we will get to work removing debris and hauling in ecology blocks, large light-weight lego-looking type barriers to shore up the existing bridge piers.


Stay tuned and we will provide more about the progress of this project on SR 202.