SR 202 Weekend-Long Closures Coming Near Sammamish, Fall City

Press release from the Washington State Department of Transportation:

August 18, 2020

SAMMAMISH – Sections of State Route 202 will close in late August and mid-September for culvert replacement under the highway, which will increase habitat for salmon and other marine life.

Hamilton Construction is working under contract with the Washington State Department of Transportation as part of the SR 202 Evans and Patterson creeks fish passage project.

Closure details

• 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28 to 5 a.m. Monday, Aug. 31: SR 202 at Patterson Creek between 244th Avenue Northeast and Ames Lake Road near Sammamish. Local traffic will detour via Northeast Ames Lake Road, Northeast Union Hill Road and 236th Avenue Northeast, adding about 4.5 miles to the trip.
• 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11, to 5 a.m. Monday, Sept. 14: SR 202 east of Patterson Creek Farm between 308th Avenue Southeast and Southeast 40th Street near Fall City. Local traffic will detour via West River Road, 24th Avenue Southeast, 309th Avenue Southeast and 31st Street Southeast, adding about a mile to the trip.

Plan for long detours
This section of King County has limited alternate routes. Trucks will need to detour via Interstate 90 each weekend of scheduled work. Local residents will have access up to the creek in both directions, but no one will be allowed to pass through the work zone.

Improving fish passage
The existing culverts under SR 202 at these locations are narrow, which makes the water traveling through them too fast for salmon to continue upstream. Replacing these culverts will provide more salmon breeding and rearing territory that will benefit salmon populations, people who fish and marine life in the Salish Sea that depend on salmon for food.

The weekend of Aug. 29-30, a new 16-foot wide culvert installed at Patterson Creek will open up about 3.2 miles of additional habitat.

During work the weekend of Sept. 12-13, the west tributary’s new 12-foot culvert will provide access to more than 2.5 miles of spawning grounds. The east tributary culvert will be 23 feet wide and open up nearly 5.5 miles of habitat.

This press release was produced by the Washington State Department of Transportation. The views expressed here are the author’s own.