Southern Road & Bridge, LLC (SRB) was awarded a Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) contract to replace the paint on the US 395 Pioneer Memorial Bridge.
Connecting the cities of Kennewick and Pasco, the bridge spans the Columbia River and is utilized as nesting habitat by birds, in particular, cliff swallows. Federal law protects most birds and the penalties for harassing, harming, or killing birds, eggs, or young are really steep. We’re talking about fines and/or prison time – plus, the potential for construction delay.
As such, SRB reached out to me from Florida and contracted with me to: (1) produce a Bird Protection Plan, (2) train construction staff in bird protection, and (3) conduct site monitoring during the 2024 construction season to make sure the bird protection measures are working.
A couple days ago, I completed the bird nest baseline survey from the GG boat to determine where bird nests are currently present and to become familiar with the structure of the bridge. These data help me to determine potential risk of bird presence during construction and to formulate recommendations to mitigate this risk.