Hall Creek Culvert Removal & Sewer Replacement

  • Location Mountlake Terrace, WA
  • Client Herrera Environmental
  • Owner City of Mountlake Terrace
  • Up a Creek with a Paddle

    The water has to go somewhere; but maybe not in people’s yards.

  • Setting the Creek Free

    Opening up the creek allowed for better stormwater control.

Residents could paddle a canoe in their backyard. When heavy rains hit, Hall Creek would back up and flood the road, driveways, and yards along a busy residential street. A culvert that funneled the creek under the street had small-diameter drainage pipes with insufficient capacity to handle storms. Flood conditions also caused a sewer line to sink beneath the topsoil.

Reid Middleton opened up the creek, replacing the culvert with a pedestrian bridge that not only improved creek flow but maintained pedestrian access to an adjacent golf course and park. Other improvements included a sewer replacement, a concrete mechanically-stabilized earth wall to shore up the west side of the creek beneath the creek bed, and roadway street-end modifications at the west bridge approach.