2030 Fish passage project delivery plans

We continue our work to comply with the requirements of a U.S. District Court injunction to correct barriers to salmon and steelhead, and open 90 percent of blocked habitat by 2030. We update our Fish Passage project delivery plans quarterly or sooner based on significant project issues or new information.

Delivery plans lists and maps

Find lists and maps of planned projects in each biennium, or two-year cycle. We will add information on the delivery plan as we get more information. To view these on our interactive map, turn each biennium’s layers on or off. Plan documents are from July 3, 2023.

View the full project delivery plan (PDF 424KB), or view this list in county groupings below.

Whatcom and Skagit counties

• Project delivery plan sites for Whatcom and Skagit counties on a map (PDF 597KB)
• Project delivery plan sites for Whatcom and Skagit counties in a table (PDF 95KB)

King, Snohomish and Island counties

• Project delivery plan sites for King, Snohomish and Island counties on a map (PDF 736KB)
• Project delivery plan sites for King, Snohomish and Island in a table (PDF 152KB)

Pierce, Thurston, Lewis and Pacific counties

• Project delivery plan sites for Pierce, Thurston, Lewis and Pacific counties on a map (PDF 780KB)
• Project delivery plan sites for Pierce, Thurston, Lewis and Pacific counties in a table (PDF 86KB)

Grays, Jefferson, Mason, Kitsap and Clallam counties

• Project delivery plan sites for Grays, Jefferson, Mason, Kitsap and Clallam counties on a map (PDF 870KB)
• Project delivery plan sites for Grays, Jefferson, Mason, Kitsap, and Clallam counties in a table (PDF 152KB)

How we prioritize fish passage work

We correct fish barriers as stand-alone projects or as part of larger transportation projects in alignment with both the permanent injunction and the Governor’s budget. We prioritize stand-alone projects, included in our delivery plan for compliance with the injunction, based on many factors, including:

• Habitat Gain – We prioritize barrier corrections that open the most habitat soonest to get these benefits to fish fastest. 
• Partnership Opportunities – We consider nearby barriers owned by cities, locals and private parties to partner on correcting multiple barriers at the same time. 
• Culvert Condition – We prioritize culverts that are failing structurally.
• Downstream Barriers – We place a high value on correcting culverts with no or few downstream barriers in order to provide immediate benefits to fish.
• Geographic Bundling & Public Impacts – In areas where there are many barriers along state highways it can be beneficial to group the correction efforts into one “bundle.” This may help reduce traffic delays, impacts to neighbors and can open more habitat together in a watershed. 
• Tribal Input – Working with tribes is extremely important for fish passage projects, and input from tribes on priorities is valued.
• Project Readiness – Planning and prioritizing projects that are ready to deliver gives planners and designers more time to work on complicated projects.
• Public Impacts – We always consider the effects to the public for our fish passage projects.  Bundling projects helps avoid repeated road closures and construction impacts to adjacent neighbors.

No single factor determines when a project is corrected. Each of these factors weighed together determine how WSDOT prioritizes projects.