Cascades connections
16 Fall 2014 conservationnw.org
I-90 snoqualmie Pass
east Project update
BuIlDING BrIDGeS For WIlDlIFe
Jen Watkins Conservation associate, jwatkins@conservationnw.org
Have you noticed more traffic crossing Snoqualmie Pass
this summer? Construction was in full swing in the 15-mile
I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project stretching from Hyak to
Easton. As the contractor completes the first five miles of
the project, the Washington Department of Transportation
(WSDOT) is finishing the design for phase two and the first
wildlife overpass, which will begin construction next year.
To assist in this monumental design, the I-90 Wildlife
Bridges Coalition and WSDOT co-hosted a second year of
the Bridging Futures Scholarship Contest for Washington high
school students. Students from across the state were asked to
provide concepts that tackle the same problem WSDOT engi-
neers are solving : building a wildlife crossing over I-90.
Aer sorting through the ideas that were submitted, two
students stood out for their creativity and attention to detail.
Connor Gill, a sophomore at Delta High School in Richland,
received a $1,500 scholarship from the I-90 Wildlife Bridges
Coalition and a week-long adventure with the Cascade Moun-
tain School for an essay and artistic rendition of a wildlife
overpass that garnered the top votes from our review panel.
Second prize went to Sarah Zhou, a junior at Issaquah High
School, whose essay and designs allowed wildlife to move both
under and over the interstate, earning her a $500 scholarship.
"Connor is an engineer in the making. He did a great job
creating a bridge design for wildlife," said Brian White, assis-
tant regional administrator for project development and I-90.
"Sarah did a wonderful job designing and explaining her wild-
life crossing concept. She obviously did her homework about
the dangers I-90 poses to wildlife."
As we await the construction of this first wildlife overpass,
remote cameras documented wildlife under all three wildlife
underpasses already in place in the I-90 project—two at Gold
Creek and one at Rocky Run. Deer, coyote, geese and mergan-
ser ducks are some of the first animals to be caught on camera
safely passing under six lanes of interstate traffic through these
new underpasses.
Our Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project cameras, as well
as those of WSDOT, have photographed critters adjacent to
the future crossing structures, further illustrating the impor-
tance of the project. As phase two begins construction next
year, an additional $390 million is needed to complete the
remaining nine miles of the project, which contain features
important to our region's ecolog y and economy.
Winning student scholarship bridge design, and WSDOT photo artist
conception of the Price-Noble wildlife bridge, key feature of the I-90
project.
