Much of our work with Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association has been in the way of installing steel or concrete bridges to replace undersized, damaged, or otherwise failing culverts to renew safe fish passageways. One of these projects took place in Pepin Creek alongside Double Ditch Road in Lynden, WA where we installed a 35’ long concrete bridge in place of a washed-out, undersized culvert.

Part of what we liked about doing this project was that we were able to contribute to maintaining Whatcom County’s ecosystem in an important way that could have easily been overlooked or lost entirely if not for the dedication and expertise of our friends over at NSEA. The site looks like a completely ordinary roadside ditch, when, in fact, it’s a fish bearing stream that is used by several species of salmon and trout. It’s an important reminder to take care of every body of water. Even if it doesn’t have fish or other aquatic life, it almost certainly flows downstream to somewhere that does. We spotted Coho salmon crossing under the new bridge before we even completed the job!

Major Elements: excavation, erosion control, trucking, traffic control, water diversion and stream bypass, dewatering, bridge assembly, stream channel construction