04.09.24

Port of Tacoma to Replace Failing Culvert With New Bridge Thanks to $24.5M Federal Grant

Replacing Wapato Creek Culvert will restore vital salmon passage while improving terminal safety & operations

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced that The Northwest Seaport Alliance will receive a $24.5 million federal grant to replace the Wapato Creek Culvert – which reached the end of its useful life in 2020 -- with a bridge at the Pierce County Terminal near the Port of Tacoma.

The project will also restore fish passage through Wapato Creek, which bisects the active cargo terminal.

“Fixing the Wapato Creek Culvert will help restore fish habitat and ensure continued operations at the Port of Tacoma, one of the nation’s most vital deep-water ports. This funding will be used to replace the culvert with a bridge that will protect crucial cargo operations, restore the creek channel passage, and remove a significant fish barrier,” said U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

“Replacing the Wapato Creek Culvert will help save endangered salmon populations—expanding on recent restoration work on Lower Wapato Creek--as well as reduce the risk of localized flooding and ensure safe and resilient operations at the Port of Tacoma. In addition to improving fish passage—which right now is only possible during high tides—these improvements will bolster the region’s infrastructure resiliency amidst climate change and more frequent extreme weather events. I’m proud to have supported this project since day one and will continue to work as Chair of Appropriations to secure funding for important port infrastructure and restoration projects across our state,” said U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Sen. Cantwell wrote a letter in support of the project to FHWA Administrator Shailen Bhatt in December. The full text of that letter is available HERE. Sen. Murray also wrote a letter in support of the project to Administrator Bhatt in December, full text of the letter is available HERE.

Should the Wapato Creek culvert fail, the impact would be dire. The current culvert is located under a transportation and freight corridor that includes five commercial truck lanes, two cargo handling equipment lanes, and railroad tracks.

The project will also remove a significant fish barrier – the nine-foot by six-foot culvert is estimated to have been built in the mid- to late-1960s and reached the end of its useful life four years ago. The current Wapato Creek Culvert is a poor passageway for fish seeking access to upstream habitat, including Chinook salmon, steelhead, and trout.

As Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Sen. Cantwell has been a champion of infrastructure projects to bolster operations at the Port of Tacoma. In August 2023, Sen. Cantwell secured a $2 million planning and permitting grant for the Wapato Creek Culvert replacement project. Funding for this grant came from the National Culvert Removal, Replacement, and Restoration Grant Program, which Sen. Cantwell authored and championed $1 billion for the program in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).

In January, Sens. Cantwell and Murray helped to secure $12 million for the Northwest Seaport Alliance to install charging hubs for heavy-duty electric trucks at the Port of Tacoma and Port of Seattle. In October, Sens. Cantwell and Murray announced that the Northwest Seaport Alliance would receive a $54.2 million federal grant for phase one of its Husky Terminal Expansion project, which will reconfigure the terminal yard to allow working two ultra-large ships instead of just one, install 40 refrigerated container racks for agricultural and seafood exporters, and relocate the North Intermodal Yard Tower and other support structures to create more efficient truck routes on the terminal. The grant was awarded through the Cantwell-championed Port Infrastructure Development Program. In December 2022, Sen. Cantwell fought to include language in the National Defense Authorization Act that authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to deepen the Port of Tacoma’s Blair waterway so extra-large container ships can import and export goods out of the Port of Tacoma.

Sen. Murray visited the Port of Tacoma earlier this year to tour the Husky Terminal and host a roundtable discussion on how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law she helped pass is benefitting Washington state ports in a major way. Sen. Murray has also long championed protecting Washington state’s salmon and fish populations, including culvert removal and replacement to preserve precious habitats. In the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Murray helped pass as then-Assistant Majority Leader, she secured $1 billion for culvert removal, replacement, and restoration; $172 million for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF); and $207 million for the Coastal Zone Management Program, among other habitat investments. As Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Murray secured hundreds of millions of dollars to support ports and fish passage and habitat protection projects in Washington state in this year’s spending package, including $75 million for the Pacific Salmon account at the National Marine Fisheries Service, $50 million for the construction of a fish passage facility at Howard Hanson Dam, and much more.

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