New Meadows, Idaho

The Little Goose Creek Project will replace an aging box culvert within Little Goose Creek with a 3-sided stiffleg culvert at a new alignment, near New Meadows, Idaho. The creek will be re-routed, and State Highway 55 realigned to accommodate the new crossing.

Due to the presence of critical habitat for Snake River spring-summer chinook salmon (Onchorhynchus tshawytscha) and bull trout (Salvelinus confuentus), the project required a Programmatic Biological Assessment and involved extensive coordination with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Ardurra successfully coordinated an earlier in-water construction start date with the agencies that would allow construction to occur within one season.

Ardurra also prepared a Categorical Exclusion to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and completed background studies for ESA-listed and Forest/State sensitive species. For aquatic resources, Ardurra performed an Aquatic Resources Delineation and received a Preliminary Jurisdictional Determination (PJD) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

Ardurra completed the Joint Application for Permits which is currently under review by the USACE and Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR).