Stonybrook Creek

Caltrans Stonybrook Culvert

The California Department of Transportation owns a road crossing box-culvert at the bottom of Stonybrook Creek that is undersized and a potential barrier to steelhead migration. Caltrans has proposed removing the culvert and replacing it with a free-span bridge that will allow for a natural stream channel and migratory fish passage. The problem is the culvert replacement has been included as part of a controversial highway widening project in Niles Canyon. The ACA supports replacement of the culvert with a bridge, but has problems with other aspects of the highway project.

Alameda County Palomares Road Culverts

In June 2010 the Alameda County Department of Public Works prepared a draft Strategic Plan for Eliminating Barriers to Steelhead Migration in Stonybrook Creek.

Several fish passage barrier assessments in Stonybrook Creek have been conducted during the past decade and numerous crossings have been identified as either complete or partial barriers to upstream migrating steelhead. The Alameda County Department of Public Works is developing a watershed wide barrier remediation strategy and estimating potential costs for implementation. This involves identifying priority crossings for fish passage improvement, recommending the order in which they should be treated, and developing planning-level cost estimates to address them.

Conceptual designs have been prepared for modifying two Palomares Road crossing culverts owned by Alameda County for fish passage in lower Stonybrook Creek. The design work was partly funded by a $40,000 fine imposed on the City of Fremont for an improperly conducted culvert project. The conceptual designs will be used for future implementation grant proposals, include cost estimates and barrier analysis, and involve outreach to landowners in Stonybrook Creek. The project, in combination with a Hwy. 84 road crossing improvement planned by CalTrans, would make about 3,000 feet of Stonybrook Creek accessible to steelhead once fish passage projects in the flood control channel are completed. Read the reports:

Stonybrook Creek Fish Barrier Assessment (April 2001 report by Michael Love for Alameda County Public Works Agency)

Stonybrook Creek Salmonid Migration Barrier Removal Project Report (December 2005 final report)

Conceptual designs for removal and replacement of two stream crossings

Fish Passage Assessment of Private Stream Crossings on Lower Stonybrook Creek (December 2005 report by Michael Love and CEMAR for CA Coastal Conservancy and American Rivers)

Stonybrook and Sinbad Creek - Small Scale Restoration Projects

The Alameda Creek Alliance will be working with various agencies to conduct restoration projects on Sinbad Creek in Sunol and Stonybrook Creek along Palomares Road in Niles Canyon, beginning in 2007. Both creeks are tributaries to Alameda Creek and viable steelhead spawning habitats.

Volunteers went door-to-door in 2007 doing outreach to residents along the two creeks to provide them with information about our steelhead restoration work, and to meet and identify landowners interested in allowing us to do small-scale restoration projects on their property.