The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Starting next week, travelers on SR will detour down county roads while the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) replaces culverts near the Elochoman River bridge.

The department has been planning to replace two large culverts for over a year.

On Tuesday, the department announced a contractor will close the highway to motor vehicles and bicycles between Risk Road and Elochoman Valley Road from Monday, Aug. 10 to Friday, Oct. 2. Traffic will use the Elochoman Valley, Foster and Risk roads as a detour route.

The announcement came after Wahkiakum County Commissioners Dan Cothren, Blair Brady and Mike Backman voted to approve an agreement with WSDOT for use of the county roads as a detour.

The closure will aid the WSDOT contractor to work without hindrance of traffic, and the project should be completed faster than it would be otherwise, said county Public Works Director Pete Ringen.

Commissioner Blair Brady expressed concern about oversize roads blocking other traffic on the detour route, which has narrow lanes in some places.

The county's approval for the detour is for all legal loads, Ringen said. Over weight or over length loads won't be permitted on the detour.

"People should make plans to use other routes for those loads," Ringen said.

The agreement also calls for the state to reimburse the county for the cost of additional routine maintenance and repairs that might result from the detour traffic. WSDOT and road crew staff were inspecting the route Tuesday to document its condition, Ringen said.

According to WSDOT, a contractor will replace two small-scale culverts with two larger fish-friendly box culverts. The new culverts measure 12 feet tall and up to 20 feet wide.

“Replacing culverts this size is challenging work, and not something we can do overnight,” said Project Engineer Lori Figone. “More than 2,200 vehicles use this highway each day. While we have a detour in place, drivers should be prepared for backups.”

The culverts should increase water flow in the wetlands along the road and prevent flooding of the highway in storms, the announcement said.

The larger culverts will also provide more room for debris to move through the culverts, reducing costs of regular maintenance to clean out the culverts.

The culverts link Elochoman Slough to the wetlands and will provide improved fish passage to the tidal marsh habitat along the highway.