The Service is soliciting public review and comment on a Compatibility Determination to allow the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to construct a temporary traffic diversion road ("highway widening") on Siletz Bay NWR lands east of U.S. Highway 101 at milepost 119. This temporary traffic diversion road will allow ODOT to replace an existing small concrete culvert under US 101 with a much larger culvert without interrupting fish passage or stopping traffic along a busy highway during construction. In order to construct the new culvert, remove the old culvert, maintain fish passage throughout the replacement, and maintain two lanes of traffic on US 101 throughout construction, ODOT needs to construct the temporary highway diversion road around the construction site. Traffic volumes are too high to flag one lane through the work zone without causing extreme traffic delays. Siletz Bay NWR is located immediately adjacent to the eastern highway right-of-way (ROW), approximately 30 feet from the edge of the pavement, so this temporary two- lane road diversion would be constructed on refuge lands. The primary purpose of the culvert replacement project is to remove a severe impediment to tidal flows and to improve fish passage and hydrology through replacement of the undersized and failing culvert underneath US 101 adjacent to refuge lands. The primary purpose of the proposed use is to allow the culvert replacement to be completed in a safe, efficient and timely manner through temporarily diverting traffic away from the culvert replacement site.

Download the Compatibility Determination (167 KB PDF)