FERNDALE, Wash. — Work to mediate California Creek fish passages under state roads will wrap up in the Ferndale area this summer with one last project that will require a road closure that has the potential for significant traffic impacts over several days.
Officials with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) say 6 days of work is scheduled to begin August 24th at the intersection of Portal Way and Grandview Road (State Route 548). The intersection is scheduled to be closed 24 hours a day through Saturday, August 29th.
The intersection of Portal Way and Grandview Road will be closed and Portal Way, between Brown Road and Birch Bay-Lynden Road will be closed except to local traffic.
WSDOT officials say signed detours will route traffic around the closed intersection and closed section of Portal Way as indicated in the following graphic.
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Semi trucks will be asked not to use the southern leg of the detour, instead they are to detour via Birch Bay-Lynden Road to the north.
The contractor will provide an escort for people on foot, bicycle or wheelchair that want to go north or south on Portal Way and people will still be able to get to the Petro Food Mart at the corner of Portal Way and Grandview Road according to WSDOT.
After the intersection is reopened, single-lane closures with traffic directed by flaggers is expected as work is wrapping up.
This work follows California Creek fish passage mediation work that began earlier this summer under the northbound and southbound lanes of I-5 and under Zell Road adjacent to I-5.
WSDOT is correcting fish barriers along state highways that block salmon and other fish from migrating as part of their obligations under a 2013 federal court injunction that, according to WSDOT, “requires the state to significantly increase the effort for removing state-owned culverts that block habitat for salmon and steelhead by 2030.”