🏆 Award-Winning Infrastructure
Weir Replacement
Makah National Fish Hatchery
Optimized Fish Passage: Significantly improves fish navigation and collection efficiency for hatchery operations while restoring natural passage for native species.
Long-Term Durability: The engineered precast concrete structures offer an drastically extended lifecycle compared to the legacy timber components, minimizing future maintenance demands.
Habitat Protection: Balanced civil engineering with environmental stewardship to protect the Tsoo-Yess River ecosystem, fulfilling the shared vision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Makah Tribe’s fisheries program.
2026 SEAW Seattle Infrastructure Project of the Year
The Makah National Fish Hatchery Weir Repair project has been honored as the Infrastructure Project of the Year by the Structural Engineers Association of Washington (SEAW) Seattle Chapter. This prestigious accolade recognizes outstanding achievement, seamless design-build collaboration, and precision execution in heavy civil infrastructure.
Project Overview & Environmental Impact
This $4.56 million upgrade modernizes the fish passage system at the Makah National Fish Hatchery on the Tsoo-Yess River near Neah Bay, Washington. The hatchery’s original 1970s timber weir apron and fish ladder had become aging and underperforming. To protect the river environment and support critical conservation goals, the design-build team executed a complex rehabilitation that replaced the deteriorating, 100-foot-long timber structures with durable, high-precision, 8-inch thick precast concrete panels while safely saving and integrating the existing dam wall.
The scope of work also included extending the fish ladder entrance approximately 100 feet closer to the main river channel to effectively guide and attract fish into the ladder. To safeguard the surrounding ecosystem during construction, the river channel was temporarily dewatered using portadam systems, allowing for strategic riprap armoring, channel restoration, and extensive revegetation along the riverbank.
Location
Neah Bay, WA
Start
May 2024
Completion Date
Sept 2025
Owner
US Dept of Agriculture
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