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February 5, 2021

National finalist: Gold award — Water Resources
Parsons and GeoEngineers

Image courtesy of ACEC
For WSDOT, Parsons and GeoEngineers proposed the Coffee Creek improved channel corridor solution that included completely rerouting Coffee Creek through nearly a mile of carefully designed habitat.

Project: Coffee Creek fish barrier removal
Client: Washington State Department of Transportation

Population levels of salmon, steelhead and other critical fish species have continued to drop across Washington state, impacting overall ecological health and the lucrative fishing industry. Older culverts and other manmade infrastructure are important factors in fish declines. Physical barriers and narrow channels with unnaturally rapid flow rates often prevent fish from accessing critical spawning and rearing habitat upstream. For decades, Native American tribes and conservation organizations have advocated to improve fish passage at the thousands of stream crossings beneath Washington roads.

The Washington State Department of Transportation is currently overseeing a massive state-wide culvert replacement effort to address this important ecological and economic issue following a federal court ruling requiring fish passage improvements.

As part of this state-wide effort, WSDOT identified a small culvert beneath U.S. Route 101 near Shelton that was blocking critical fish species from accessing more than 13 miles of upstream spawning and rearing habitat in Coffee Creek.

For the first time on a fish-passage project, WSDOT decided to use a design-build project delivery approach for the infrastructure improvements at Coffee Creek.

The Parsons/Scarsella Joint Venture developed an alternative technical concept as part of the design-build procurement process. Parsons, as lead designer, and GeoEngineers, as principal subconsultant, proposed the Coffee Creek improved channel corridor solution that included completely rerouting Coffee Creek through nearly a mile of carefully designed habitat toward a new confluence with nearby Goldsborough Creek. Once joined with Goldsborough Creek, the channel could cross U.S. 101 beneath an existing bridge.


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