The Seabeck Creek Fish Barrier Removal addressed fish passage by removing a failing fish ladder and replacing an existing undersized culvert under Seabeck Holly Road NW, in southern Kitsap County. Loving Engineering was the prime contractor for the project proponent Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group. Together they worked with landowners and Kitsap County to improve access to spawning habitats for all salmonids, improve rearing conditions for steelhead, coho, and cutthroat, and restore more normative sediment dynamics and hydrology.
The project provides access to spawning habitat upstream of the new transportation facility, which was designed to accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians. The replacement of a failing culvert with a bridge is anticipated to reduce flooding at Seabeck Holly Road. The project scope included replacing an undersized culvert with a 65-foot bridge span, re-grading 365 lineal feet of stream channel, and placing large wood upstream and downstream of the culvert replacement. These design elements add sediment storage capacity and habitat complexity, improve flood capacity, restore stream geomorphology and natural hydrology, and improve salmonid spawning accessibility to 7.4 miles of upstream habitat.
Loving Engineering & Consulting, P.S. Inc. led the design team from the initial conceptual design development in 2016, to construction which began in fall 2020 and was completed in 2021. Loving Engineering hired and managed subconsultants to provide a comprehensive team including surveyor, geotechnical engineer, archaeologist, hydraulic engineer, stream restoration designer and bridge engineer. Loving provided all permit applications and coordinated project approvals with Kitsap County, US Army Corps, Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife, and coordinated design details with local tribes.