SNOHOMISH — A project to replace fish culverts for a creek that feeds the Pilchuck River will require closing one part of Sexton Road from July 7 until September, temporarily preventing it being a through route. The detour uses Machias Road, which runs parallel to Sexton.
The project involves replacing culverts on Sexton Creek south of Three Lakes Road.
On Sexton Road, the county will be replacing twin culverts under the road with a 27-foot steel arch bridge and will remove a series of downstream weirs. On U.S. 2 parallel to the same spot, the state Department of Transportation will be replacing twin culverts under U.S. 2 with a bridge structure.
Culverts are like large pipes in the dirt. They’re used for water drainage.
The stream channel in the area will be restored through this project, beginning at the confluence of Sexton Creek with the Pilchuck River.
The work will allow fish to swim more freely through the creek. Transportation says the creek sees chinook, coho, pink and chum salmon and steelhead, sea-run cutthroat, bull and resident trout.
The culvert replacement work has a $9 million budget.
Transportation said the U.S. 2 section is paid for from the state gas tax and legislature-determined funds.
The county’s work on Sexton Road is funded by a state grant toward fish barrier removals, as well as a federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grant administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, plus County Surface Water Management utility fees.
In 2013, a federal court sided with a coalition of Washington tribes in ruling that the state needed to keep fish runs strong, and that Transportation needs to accelerate replacing more of the barriers that impede salmon migration.
The Sexton Creek culverts were one of more than 1,000 culverts statewide formally marked as needing replacement.
Certain culverts for Bunk Foss Creek that cross under the interchange at U.S. 2 and state Route 9 locally to Snohomish are also on the list. The creek, which can bear salmon redd, crosses a second time under U.S. 2 before running alongside Bunk Foss Road. Bunk Foss Creek feeds into the Pilchuck. That second crossing was not determined to be enough of a fish barrier that requires replacement, according to a Fish Passage Performance Report from Transportation published last year.
