A new bridge over the Big Quilcene River will reduce flood impacts for area residents while allowing salmon, including threatened Hood Canal summer chum and Puget Sound steelhead, to swim through habitat-rich floodplain channels to their spawning grounds.
The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, in partnership with the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group and Jefferson County, began replacing the 81-foot-long bridge on Linger Longer Road with an 1,140-foot-long, floodplain-spanning bridge in 2025.
In the early 20th century, most of the first mile of the Big Quilcene River was straightened, dredged and diked. The dikes, however, didn’t contain the river as intended during storms, said Randy Johnson, the tribe’s habitat program manager. The river then flooded nearby residences, as well as Linger Longer Road, cutting off access to neighborhoods and businesses to the south.
The bridge replacement, along with dike modifications, should address the problem.
“The idea is to get the river out of the ditch and back into the historic floodplain, which is approximately 1,000 feet wide and why we need such a long bridge,” Johnson said.
The dikes that artificially narrowed the river channel also caused issues for salmon. During high water, the reach would become a hydraulic cannon; salmon prefer slower waters with pools, logjams, riffles and side channels.
To improve fish passage through the floodplain, project partners are constructing a new sinuous main channel and five side channels, based on maps showing where the river used to run in the late 1800s, Johnson said. At project’s end, the tribe will have constructed approximately 8,600 feet of new channels and 115 engineered logjams.
“There will be a resilient transportation infrastructure where residents don’t have to worry about being cut off by floods anymore while also allowing the river to get back to a normalized condition that creates excellent habitat for salmon,” Johnson said.
Tribal employees and the construction team observed juvenile coho and adult fall chum salmon exploring the lower half of the new river system in fall 2025, almost immediately after it was completed in the late summer. Hood Canal summer chum and Puget Sound steelhead, both listed under the Endangered Species Act, along with coho, pinks and cutthroat, use the river system for spawning. Juvenile chinook from other Hood Canal rivers also will likely use the new channel system on their outward migration in spring, Johnson said.
Meanwhile, the bridge is expected to open for use in May 2026. The tribe expects to complete the full project, including removing or setting back portions of the dikes, by spring 2027.
An aerial view shows the new Linger Longer Road bridge over the newly formed Big Quilcene River main channel, center, and Jamestown side channel, right. Story: Tiffany Royal; Photo: Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe
