Flaggers, delays and detours due again at Minter Creek this summer

Construction flaggers and detour signs will return to the Minter Creek crossing of State Route 302 on the Key Peninsula this summer, the state Department of Transportation warned drivers on Thursday.

Crews will return to the Minter Creek area beginning June 14 to finish a project begun two years ago to replace outdated fish barriers under the roadway. Drivers should expect delays and at least one eight-day closure during the summer, WSDOT said in a release on June 3.

Beginning in the summer of 2019, construction crews replaced aging culverts at Minter Creek with a bridge that allowed better salmon migration. The work this summer will replace two smaller culverts on a tributary, Little Minter Creek, about a mile east.

The timing of the eight-day closure has not been determined and will be announced later, WSDOT said. Drivers can sign up for email updates to avoid delays.

During construction last year, crews also paved nearly eight miles of SR-302 and made improvements for bicycles and pedestrians at several intersections west of the SR-16 interchange.

The culvert removal project is a part of a statewide effort that resulted from a major court decision in a suit brought by several Native American tribes. Culverts restrict stream flow and can make it difficult for fish to navigate upstream to spawn.

In a related announcement WSDOT said rehabilitation work on the Purdy Bridge, originally scheduled to be part of the SR-302 project, will be put out for bid in the spring of 2022.

This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 2:05 PM.