The Washington State Department of Transportation’s Fish Passage Program’s long history dates back to Native American tribal treaty law. When Pacific Northwest tribes signed treaties with the U.S. government, they relinquished land in order to retain their maritime and water-based resources — predominantly fish and shellfish. By right, these tribes have access to and rely upon fish populations throughout Washington state for their livelihood.

Thousands of miles of streams throughout the state are home to salmon and steelhead species. Driven by its environmental commitment, WSDOT has worked for more than three decades to improve fish passage and foster healthy waterways to keep the fish from moving freely. The agency now concentrates most of its fish passage work in western Washington to open up 90% of the stream habitat in that part of the state by 2030.

Over time landscape and stream flow changes resulting from development, logging and fires can become a barrier for fish passage. State highways that cross streams and rivers in thousands of places in Washington also can impede migration, which negatively affects fishes’ ability to feed and reproduce.

As Julie Hampden, HNTB environmental lead on the Fish Passage program, said, “The Fish Passage Program’s efforts will ensure the habitats in these streams support a thriving fish population.”

Under a general engineering contract, WSDOT selected HNTB to support fish passage delivery in its Northwest Region. HNTB team members with a variety of roles — geomorphologists; stream design and environmental engineers; fishery biologists; project and procurement managers; project control staff; roadway, drainage, geotechnic and structural engineers; utility engineers and landscape architects — rise each morning to meet the challenges of this work. Foundational elements, including stream hydraulics, geomorphology, design and project advertising, are underway.

Complex projects and smart solutions

The $2.4 billion Fish Passage Program is comprised of hundreds of individual projects, each with its own technical challenges and opportunities. Under the GEC contract, HNTB’s “cradle-to-grave” role includes everything from early planning, environmental services and contract administration through final engineering design and barrier replacement construction, said Don Sims, HNTB project director.

“Fish Passage is a non-traditional HNTB project that draws on both environmental expertise and civil engineering to solve the problem,” he said. “The work taking place now considers the environmental impacts current infrastructure and is determining how we can change what needs to be corrected. During the life cycle of the program, we will build new bridges and replace culverts on roadways — the kinds of work HNTB has a long history of delivering.”

WSDOT prioritizes individual Fish Passage projects that open the most habitat fastest, often partnering with cities and other entities to correct multiple barriers at the same time and bundling correction efforts to minimize traffic impacts. Many projects are underway at once.

Three projects — each posing its own distinct challenges — illustrate the program’s complexities:

• A recent project removed a barrier at Lake Creek along I-90, where the stream came from a steep hillside onto an abruptly flattened slope. There, water and sediment spread out and I-90 further impeded fish passage. The team will correct these obstacles by building a series of step pools that restore the stream channel.
• Sites along Friday Creek near I-5 include 10 separate barriers. Each will be fixed in context with the others, so that correcting one doesn’t inadvertently create new problems at the other locations.
• The Eagle Creek site, where a new culvert will be placed, requires that the team plan for enough space between the top of that structure and the roadway above to avoid creating a pinch point where debris could collect during heavy rains and cause the road to flood. Both the stream and the culvert also must allow enough access to permit periodic road and culvert maintenance. At that site, the roadway will be raised to achieve those goals.

Unique but perfectly aligned

HNTB’s team represents multiple offices and disciplines — an army of engineers, scientists and subconsultants that underpin the partnership between the firm and WSDOT, said Henry Hu, HNTB water resources lead.

Fish Passage also is unique in the level of collaboration between WSDOT, the project team and key stakeholders, including Native American tribes and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. All are at the table participating in the design process. The team is further coordinating design with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ensure that project work avoids negative effects on how water functions in floodplains.

“The industry has advanced in our understanding of the natural world and ecosystems since the mid-1900s, when the infrastructure we’re addressing was built,” Hampden said. “Fish Passage, with its capacity questions and ecological and environmental intricacies, is the ultimate test of an engineering firm like HNTB, challenging our designers not only to manage the complexities of building a transportation corridor but also to build it in this interconnected and complex natural system.”

A legacy of promise

As a trusted WSDOT partner, HNTB already had a long history of project delivery on large programs for the agency. Considering the diverse nature of the Fish Passage program, WSDOT and HNTB blended their expertise, filling gaps on the technical skills roster with carefully selected subconsultants.

Many of those subcontractors are small, Historically Underutilized Businesses HNTB is mentoring so they can learn about and align with WSDOT expectations. That collaboration has built a strong regional bench with the capacity to effectively deliver the program.

While maintaining quality across such a large multidisciplinary team could be difficult, HNTB has worked closely with WSDOT and the project team to create processes that meet the particular needs of the project designs. For example, rather than having a single technical reviewer for a report, a peer review team — which includes a representative from each relevant discipline — reviews the information.

“The model developed here in Washington has established a cohesive team working together to achieve a common goal,” Sims said. “We leave our individual business cards at the door. Often, we don’t even know whether a colleague is with WSDOT, HNTB or a subconsultant. We’re all working collectively to deliver success.”

Hu said the WSDOT partnership and the team relationship also are realizing significant advancements in stream design and environmental practices. A single removed barrier can deliver impressive benefits by improving fish access for miles, both upstream and downstream. When rivers and streams reconnect, fish can better reach the habitat they need to access food resources, reproduce, escape predators and find refuge from high winter stream flows.

“This important component of protecting and restoring fish populations will have a meaningful impact to stakeholders, to the communities that are reliant upon those fish and fisheries resources and to stream-based ecosystems throughout western Washington,” Hampden said. “The Fish Passage program is a path of opportunity that leaves a legacy of societal and environmental benefits.”