New Green Cove bridge opens passage for cars and fish

U.S. Rep. Marilyn Strickland joined Thurston County officials last week to celebrate the opening of a new bridge on Country Club Road over Green Cove Creek in unincorporated Thurston County.

In 2021, county inspectors discovered the soil supporting the decades-old bridge was giving way, threatening to close the road, potentially cut off utilities to nearby homes, and collapse the metal culvertthat blocked the flow of Green Cove Creek underneath. County engineers immediately began planning its replacement.

The new bridge not only saves the road — it creates a free-flowing creed that allows salmon easy passage.

“Our success wasn’t just about what we built, but how we built it,” said Tye Menser, chair of Thurston County’s Board of County Commissioners. “This project was a true collaboration — uniting the (Squaxin Island) Tribe, local neighbors, and government partners — to not only open up fish habitat but to also forge unprecedented partnerships that will benefit our community for generations.”

Strickland was one of the project’s key partners, advocating for the millions of dollars in federal funding that covered more than 60% of the county’s project costs, according to a county news release. The money also was instrumental in the project’s utility relocations.

“I’m so proud we secured funding for a project that checks every box — safety, clean water, fish passage — without asking families to pay more,” Rep. Strickland was quoted as saying in the news release. “It’s a win for the whole community.”

By removing the collapsed, narrow culvert and replacing it with a bridge, the natural creek flow was reopened to waterflow and to salmon-spawning habitat that had been blocked since 1969, the county says. The effort has already yielded results: salmon — including chum, coho, steelhead, and cutthroat — returned to spawn in the creek in 2024 for the first time in decades.

County public works officials said contractors removed more than 20,000 cubic yards of material — enough to fill about four Olympic-sized swimming pools. The new bridge features five 81-ton concrete girders, each 150 feet long, installed by two cranes working in tandem.

This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM.