Project Overview
The Squalicum Creek at Baker Creek Fish Passage Improvement Project (EN059) is part of the City’s strategic approach to fish barrier removal. Located where Squalicum and Baker Creeks meet, this project:
- Removes a weir on Squalicum Creek that is currently a fish barrier. The weir is a low dam that raises the level of water upstream.
- Provides fish passage where an existing culvert on Baker Creek crosses under Squalicum Way. The culvert crossing will be replaced with a fish-passable bridge.
Correcting the City-owned fish passage barrier on Squalicum Creek is a high priority based on the City’s Fish Barrier Prioritization and will benefit coho and chum salmon, resident and sea-run cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, and other native fish. The project also provides improved fish access to habitat the City restored through previous restoration projects, including the Squalicum Creek Re-Route Phases 1-4.
Project Status – 2026
The design team has finalized project design, including an updated gravity sewer conveyance plan that will reduce long-term operation and maintenance costs to the City.
The City has applied for construction funds through the Fish Barrier Removal Board. If our application is successful, construction will be scheduled in 2028 (bidding in late fall 2027). Construction is also pending an agreement with BNSF for temporary impacts to their right-of-way.
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The City plans to keep one lane of Squalicum Way open during construction. Delays should be expected but the road won’t be closed for significant periods of time.
This project is one of many voluntary fish passage projects by the City of Bellingham and honors a Memorandum of Agreement that the City voluntarily entered in 2022 with the Nooksack Indian Tribe, Lummi Nation, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) as part of a shared commitment to improving fish passage.
Squalicum Creek
The existing barrier on Squalicum Creek is an approximately 29-foot-long and 2-foot-tall concrete weir that is considered a partial fish passage barrier by WDFW, with 33 percent fish passability due to water surface drop. This project will remove the weir and re-grade the stream.
The Squalicum Creek barrier is complicated due to the existing culvert crossing nearby that allows Squalicum Way to cross over Baker Creek. An alternatives analysis evaluating three conceptual stream channel alternatives was completed by the same design team under an earlier grant. This interdisciplinary design team evaluated the alternatives based on project goals, objectives, site assessment, hydrology, and other criteria. This project approach – removal of the weir on Squalicum Creek and replacing the Baker Creek crossing at Squalicum Way with a bridge – was the preferred alternative. To learn more about the early design and alternatives analysis, see the Preliminary Design Report (PDF).
Baker Creek
Baker Creek is a tributary to Squalicum Creek and connects just upstream of the existing weir. The confluence location is immediately downstream of a double-barrel 5-foot by 5-foot box culvert that conveys Baker Creek under Squalicum Way from north to south. This box culvert is currently identified as a corrected barrier per WDFW assessment. The weir on Squalicum Creek artificially maintains a water surface elevation that is slightly higher than the Baker Creek culvert outlet. When the weir is removed, it will cause the box culvert to be a fish passage barrier. The double barrel box culvert will be removed and replaced with a bridge with this project.
This project is funded through a Brian Abbott Fish Barrier Removal Board Grant, awarded in 2023.
Early design and grant match is provided by the City of Bellingham Stormwater Fund 430.
Contact
General project questions: AskPW@cob.org
Media inquiries: pwmedia@cob.org
Jessica Bennett, PE
Project Manager
Phone: (360) 778-7923
Email: jjbennett@cob.org
Sara Brooke Benjamin, MSc
Project Biologist
Phone: (360) 778-7969
Email: sbbenjamin@cob.org
