Culvert replacement project underway on Kirkpatrick Road
Published 1:30 am Friday, July 24, 2026
Earlier this week, drivers on Kirkpatrick Road would have seen a bypass road under construction on a short stretch of road near Camp Bethel. And by week’s end, traffic was diverted onto this two-lane bypass road, and crews began the excavation of Kirkpatrick Road to access the culvert that Damon Creek flows through into the Humptulips River.
Once the crew have excavated to the culvert, “then shoring will have to be installed,” said Lonnie Crumley, chair of the nonprofit Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force. “That’s going to be a process. That’s driving sheet pile all the way around the project site so we can dewater and dry up the area and be able to get the culvert footings in.”
Along the bypass road, drivers will see long pipes that are diverting Damon Creek through the project site.
This culvert is the last barrier on Damon Creek; previous projects replaced eight other barriers upstream. Once the culvert is replaced, six miles of rearing and spawning habitat will be opened up. The culvert replacement project is overseen by the Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force and funded through the Washington Recreation and Conservation Office and Grays Harbor County.
On Friday, July 17, a handful of volunteers answered a last-minute call to rescue fish from behind the culvert before the bypass road construction would begin. Crumley said they rescued a couple of dozen coho juvenile salmon and a couple of dozen shiners.
“Of course, you always have hundreds of small lamprey and crawfish, hundreds of crawfish and sculpins,” he said.
Rognlin’s Inc. is the contractor for the project, and the company has completed other culvert restoration projects for the Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force.
The new culvert will be 35-foot wide compared to the current 7-foot-wide culvert, which is undersized for the 25-foot-wide channel and is 33 percent passable by fish.
Sept. 15 is the estimated completion date for the in-stream work, and Crumley said the project should be finished by the end of September. When traveling through the project area, expect to see signage and a speed reduction.
