NORTH COAST,Calif. – On Thursday a federal judge in San Francisco denied a request from a group of five environmental and farming groups to delay the beginning of construction for the Willits Bypass project on Route 101 in Mendocino County.
Caltrans said the project will relieve congestion, improve air quality, reduce delays, and improve safety for traffic and pedestrians along U.S. Route 101 through Willits in Mendocino County.
This $210 million highway improvement project is funded by $136 million in Proposition 1B funds, the 2006 voter-approved transportation bond.
“We are pleased with today’s ruling denying the requested injunction,” said Caltrans District 1 Director Charlie Fielder. “Our extensive mitigation plans not only preserve native species and improve the quality of the watershed in the Little Lake Valley, they will also greatly increase the overall quality of fisheries in these headwaters of the Eel River.”
The mitigation plans include removing culverts on Haehl and Upp Creeks to open up the headwater sections of these creeks to spawning fish.
Installation of natural bottom culverts on Ryan Creek will allow summering juvenile Southern Oregon-Northern California Coasts Coho salmon, a species designated as threatened, to seek summer rearing habitat and greatly increase the species long-term survival outlook.
Along all creeks within the mitigation properties, invasive non-native plants will be removed and replaced with native plants.
Fencing also will be installed along all of the creeks within the mitigation properties keeping cattle out of the creeks and riparian zones, increasing water quality and fisheries habitat.