Federal grants will replace water tunnels beneath roads that are harmful to fish

By JEFF McMURRAY
Associated Press

The Biden administration has announced nearly $200 million in federal infrastructure grants to upgrade tunnels that carry streams beneath roads but can be deadly to fish that get stuck trying to pass through. Many of these passages known as culverts were built in the 1950s. They’re blamed in part for declining populations of salmon and other fish that live in the ocean but return to freshwater streams to spawn. Although the bulk of the money is going to Pacific states such as Alaska and Washington, there also is a large amount for Maine and a few other East Coast states.