Multipurpose design for fish passage at road crossings on a north Queensland stream

Abstract

The development of infrastructure designs to meet multipurpose goals relating to utilitarian needs and the biophysical and sociocultural environment is a crucial aspect to the creation of sustainable engineering solutions. Practitioners and managers involved in infrastructure design for road-waterway crossings such as culverts and causeways, must now go beyond conventional design practices dealing merely with flood capacity, structure integrity and stream stability, to consider protection of aquatic habitat and, in many cases, provisions for upstream migration of fish. This paper deals with several designs for fish passage remediation on an intermittent stream in north-eastern Australia, where a variety of box culvert, pipe culvert, causeway and diversion drainage structures are used. The multipurpose planning and design requirements for development of the drainage crossings and fish passage facilities is discussed, and the characteristics of the fishways for various road crossing and stream types are described. Key points for multipurpose infrastructure design are highlighted to assist practitioners and managers in meeting diverse technical requirements.