Date:
Friday, July 20, 2007
Contact:
Dustin Terpening, WSDOT Communications, 360-661-7903 cell (Burlington)
BIRCH BAY – WSDOT will close Blaine Road (SR 548) for 43 days starting Wednesday, July 25 to replace a rusting culvert under the highway at Terrell Creek.
Crews will close the highway from Grandview Road to Bay Road for 30 days straight to replace the culvert. Once the culvert is in, crews will reopen the road for 30 days to let the ground settle under the new road. Then crews will close it again for 13 days to rebuild the surface.
Detour signs are posted to help drivers around the closure. Delays should be minimal.
The existing steel culvert blocks fish from moving upstream in Terrell Creek. Crews will replace it with a wide, concrete box culvert. The new concrete rectangular culvert will be 145 feet long, 18 feet wide and 10 feet tall. Stream gravel will be spread along the bottom of the culvert to mimic a natural stream channel.
The completed project also should protect the highway from erosion caused by water flowing out of holes in the culvert and pooling around it. Damaged culverts can create sinkholes and cause roads to crumble.
While working on Terrell Creek WSDOT will take the opportunity to improve driver safety by leveling a section of the road. Cars are obscured from other drivers’ view when they travel through a dip in the existing road.
Drivers are encouraged to sign up for highway e-mail updates for Whatcom County - www.wsdot.wa.gov/northwest/emailupdates.
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