For Land Trust for Santa Barbara County
Santa Barbara, California

Arroyo Hondo Creek has the second highest upstream habitat score for endangered steelhead in the south coast area of Santa Barbara. Questa designed a culvert retrofit to facilitate fish movement through an approximately 300-foot-long by 10-foot-wide concrete culvert under Highway 101 near the mouth of Arroyo Hondo Creek. Five inter-related project objectives were identified: (1) modify the culvert to improve conditions for successful fish passage; (2) ensure that the structural integrity of the tunnel and nearby infrastructure was not compromised; (3) ensure that the tunnel had sufficient hydraulic capacity for normal and high creek flows without increasing flood damage risk; (4) maintain pedestrian access to the beach; and (5) restore and improve ecological/biological functions upstream and downstream of the tunnel. After Questa evaluated and developed potentially feasible design alternatives in a conceptual design phase, final design plans and costs estimates for the preferred alternative were prepared. Questa assisted in obtaining permits from numerous regulatory agencies and prepared a Draft Initial Study, a Habitat Mitigation & Monitoring Plan, and specialized endangered species surveys. In addition, Questa oversaw construction for this project.