Washington County is closing in on a years-long quest to replace two culverts on White Creek, a small tributary to Gales Creek that enters the stream near the junction of highways 6 and 8.
The county noted that the project is pursuing the goals of preventing damage to the roadway — failed culverts can cause sinkholes and washouts — and improving fish passage in the Gales Creek area.
The two culverts — one passing under Thornburg Road and one passing under Gales Creek Road — were described as substandard and deteriorating in Washington County Land Use and Transportation (LUT) documents.
The Washington County Board of Commissioners is expected to approve a consent agenda item Tuesday that will permit the county to obtain additional right-of-way and ancillary easements for the project if needed, and authorize LUT to make protective rent payments if necessary.
Consent agenda items are batches of routine matters adopted simultaneously and are typically approved as-is.
Gales Creek Road is expected to be closed for the project at some point this summer, the county said in a webpage established for the project.
The project is being done in partnership with the Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District, the county said.
The project is expected to be constructed in August and September 2025. The county previously sought — and was denied — federal funding for the project.
A grant request to the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Private Forest Accord Grant Program went unfunded in 2024, and the county instead turned to its own County Road Fund, approving the project in the 2024-2029 Capital Improvement Plan as part of the county’s Culvert Replacement Program.
The two culverts will cost an estimated $1.5 million to replace.
“The crossings at NW Gales Creek Road and NW Thornburg Road have been identified as fish passage barriers by the Tualatin River Watershed Council,” the county said in a document outlining the project in 2023.
The two existing culverts restrict the passage of anadromous — species that travel to and from the ocean as part of their natural lifecycle — fish like salmon and steelhead.
The county plans to install two larger reinforced box culverts that would open habitat that once held robust fish populations near the historic Fir Creek neighborhood and further upstream of the Gales Creek area.
“Removing these barriers to fish passage will provide a direct connection with Gales Creek, which is classified as critical fish habitat for Upper Willamette Steelhead by National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS),” the county said.
The lower culvert under Gales Creek was included in the 2025 Statewide Priority Fish Passage Barrier list adopted April 19, 2025.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Gales Creek Journal and sister news publications the Banks Post and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
