Watch crews start $1.2M process to remove Bateman Island causeway
Construction equipment ventured onto the doomed and denuded causeway at Bateman Island Monday morning.
A digger began removing material from the earthen bridge, though officials say the link between the Columbia River shoreline and Bateman Island won’t be formally breached until excavators reach the waterline around Wednesday.
The Walla Walla District of the Army Corps of Engineers is removing the earthen structure as part of a larger initiative to restore the ecosystem in the lower Yakima River.
The Yakima drains into the Columbia River at Richland. The causeway, constructed nearly a century ago to provide access to farms on the island, disrupted water around the island, creating brackish conditions.
Mike Livingston, regional director for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the causeway created a bottleneck that jeopardized ecosystem work up stream. The department is one of a myriad of agencies behind the removal project.
The Army Corps awarded a $1.2 million contract to Pipkin Inc. in November to remove the causeway.
The work is expected to continue through February. There are no plans to replace it with a bridge, meaning the island will be accessible only by boat.
Removing the causeway will allow water to flow through the area for the benefit of endangered salmon and other fish, birds and wildlife in the Yakima River Delta area.
Pipkin began staging construction equipment near the causeway over the holidays. It stripped vegetation including trees from the causeway over the weekend.
The city of Richland previously leased the island as a recreation area. It canceled the lease in 2025.