Stonybrook Creek

Caltrans Stonybrook Culvert

The California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) began environmental review in June of 2005 for the Route 84 Improvements project in Niles Canyon, which includes adding a turn lane off Niles Canyon Road onto Palomares Road and modifying a CalTrans road crossing culvert at the bottom of Stonybrook Creek. The existing cement box culvert is undersized and a potential barrier to steelhead migration into Stonybrook Creek.

The ACA and regulatory agencies had concerns that the original project proposed by CalTrans, which would have routed Stonybrook Creek through two concrete culverts under Niles Canyon Road, did not adequately address fish passage up Stonybrook Creek. Read the CalTrans Environmental Review and the ACA comments on the project.

October 2006 update: At the urging of the Alameda Creek Alliance, Caltrans has agreed to replace the existing box culvert with a free span bridge, which will ensure fish passage into Stonybrook Creek, avoid hydraulic constraints that could lead to erosion or limit fish passage, and maintain a natural stream channel in Stonybrook Creek.

Alameda County Palomares Road Culverts

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.