A $3.19 million contract will fix roads and fish passage near Ketchikan

The U.S. Forest Service will spend $3,194,476 on roads and stream crossings on the Shelter Cove road system near Ketchikan, work that includes replacing culverts that block fish.

Ketchikan Ready-Mix & Quarry, Inc., a local supplier of ready-mix concrete, aggregate and road construction services, holds the contract. It runs from September 2026 through October 2028. The award listing does not detail the scope of work or say which road segments are involved.

The standard the work is built to is aquatic organism passage. Culverts sized only to move water can sit too high, run too fast or drop too far at the outlet for fish to get through. The Forest Service's approach, called stream simulation, builds the crossing to mimic the natural streambed so fish and other aquatic species can pass at any life stage.

The Tongass road crossing database has tracked culverts since 1998. About 700 of them, roughly 57 percent of those inventoried, have been removed, replaced or retrofitted to restore access to fish habitat. Crossings that still block fish are flagged red in the database.

A long-standing proposal would extend the Ketchikan road system toward Shelter Cove on Carroll Inlet, tied to a 2008 statewide bond in which voters approved $10 million for a gravel road linking Harriet Hunt Lake and Shelter Cove Road. That extension would cross an old-growth reserve, raising conservation concerns. Available award records do not say whether this contract is connected to that proposal.