Design and Build Considerations in Fish Passage Culvert Projects

Applied Geology and Environmental Science (AGES) began designing and installing fish passage culverts at road crossings in 2012 in a joint project with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and US Forest Service in Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania.   Since then AGES has been involved in additional culvert projects and has developed an assessment and design process built around the US Forest Service aquatic organism passage protocol supplemented this with other tools.  Additionally AGES has also learned valuable lessons related to construction approaches and culvert options as applied to variable site conditions, access issues, contractors, and structure types.  This presentation will relate our experiences and present an approach to designing and installing passage culverts that can be adopted by others.