U.S. 2 - Mill Creek Fish Passage

The Washington State Department of Wildlife identified an 11’ span corrugated metal culvert at Mill Creek as deficient for fish passage. A project under the Environmental Retrofit Improvement Project was directed at replacing the fish barrier under U.S. 2 near Stevens Pass in Chelan County, Washington.

Contech provided a bottomless 38’ span replacement structure to allow adequate fish passage in a more natural environment. The SUPER-SPAN™ arch not only improved fish migration, but increased the culvert’s capacity to accommodate a 100-year storm event.

“This structure proved to be an excellent solution to the fish passage issue,” said Kevin Waligorski, WSDOT project engineer.

The project needed to be designed and built within a two-month window. The SUPER-SPAN™ arch structure was manufactured at the Contech plant in Winchester, Kentucky and delivered to the site on time. The structure was installed in August, and the entire project was completed by October.