If your travels take you near Mill Creek, note that all westbound lanes of State Route 96/128th Street Southeast will close and only one eastbound lane will remain open during the first phase of a series of closures beginning Thursday night, Aug. 10.

While the westbound lanes are closed, contractor crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation will install a new culvert for the North Creek fish passage project northwest of Mill Creek. It will be the last of three full closures of westbound SR 96 for this work.

The first phase of the work, when the north half of SR 96 is closed and the first half of the new culvert is installed, begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, and will last until approximately 1 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 15. Contractor crews will then swap sides to install the south half of the culvert during the second phase of the closure. A single lane of SR 96 will remain open in each direction during this phase, which will wrap up by 4:30 a.m. Friday, Aug. 18.

First phase
Beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, until 1 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 15, no westbound traffic will be allowed on SR 96 west of Elgin Way/Dumas Road through the work zone north of McCollum Park. Eastbound traffic will be reduced to one lane.

A 6.5-mile signed detour will lead people traveling on westbound SR 96 around the closure using southbound SR 527, westbound 164th Street Southeast and northbound Interstate 5. People should plan for additional travel time.

Second phase
Beginning at approximately 1 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 15, one westbound lane of SR 96 will reopen. One eastbound lane of SR 96 also will remain open and shift to the usual lefthand lane of westbound SR 96, while the center and usual eastbound lanes will close. People should continue to expect delays and seek alternate routes until work concludes at 4:30 a.m. Friday, Aug. 18.

During the closures, crews will install a 25-foot-wide concrete box culvert and build a natural creek bed, replacing a 36-inch pipe that prevents fish in North Creek from passing beneath SR 96. Once installed, the new fish passage will open almost 2.5 miles of additional habitat to native fish species, including Chinook, coho, steelhead, searun cutthroat and resident trout.