The Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works (DPW) was recently awarded the 2018 Maryland Quality Initiative (MdQI) Green/Sustainability/Environmental Award for the Rutland Road Fish Passage Project.
“We’re honored to be recognized for protecting not only public safety, but also for protecting water quality, and historic fish habitat with this project,” offered DPW Director Christopher Phipps. “We look forward to continuing to build on this work in the coming years.”
The County recently completed the Rutland Road Fish Passage Project, whose major goal was to restore historical fish migration of the yellow perch to the upper reaches of the North River, which is a tributary of the South River. These rivers have historically supported tremendous numbers of fish that travel upstream to spawn. The pre-existing culvert under Rutland Road that carried the North River was a blockage to migrating fish. In addition, the triple-cell, 48-inch corrugated metal pipe culverts were failing, and the roadway overtopped during heavy storm events.
The project involved replacing the culverts with a pre-stressed concrete slab bridge to increase the hydraulic opening and reduce roadway flooding. The project also regraded the stream bed to provide upstream passage for migrating fish, essentially opening up six miles of spawning habitat on the North River and its tributaries. The area downstream from the new bridge was also restored to create a more naturalized channel that connects the structure to the river and creates instream habitat for aquatic life.
[sb
