BARRINGTON - Brickyard Pond's herring will soon migrate to the sea the way nature intended. Though the flow of Mussuchuck Creek from Brickyard Pond to Narragansett Bay has been blocked for construction work at the Middle Highway culvert site for some time, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation announced that herring will be able to swim the creek by the beginning of October.

DOT officials pledged a free-flowing Mussachuck Creek by next month in response to environmentalists' warnings that alternatives to the natural migration wouldn't be effective.

Months of delayed work and difficulties at the site mean coordinators can't promise the water will flow through a finished culvert. They have instead agreed to open the river whether the culvert is completed or not, even if they must stop work completely.

Barrington residents Christine Jones and her daughter Charlotte, 10 months, get a lift from construction worker Tony Rego.

The announcement comes as a relief for fish and environmentalists, but residents of the area wonder when cranes, sewer pipes and water pumps will be off their lawns and the street will be reopened. Many want to know when their lives will return to normal after a year of disruption.

The DOT agreed to open the creek to the migration after environmentalists warned that a previous plan to net and hand-transport young herring might do more harm than good, said Rhode Island Department of Transportation Construction Administrator Richard Fondi

"Our environmentalists have been working with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and other environmental organizations," Mr. Fondi said. "Together they decided that a fish escort wasn't the best way to make this work. They think that if we did the carry, we may not have been successful with some of the fish."

According to environmentalists, a fish escort is a safe method for transporting adult herring during spring migrations — the fish are larger and heartier. The DOT faces a fall migration of young herring, who measure only a few inches in length, are more fragile and more difficult to see.

Instead, the DOT will open the creek for runs by Oct. 1. Though the date is a month later than Coastal Resources Management Council and DEM originally said the migration would begin, environmentalists agree that a delay is safer than netting.

"Our environmentalists are comfortable with the October first deadline," Mr. Fondi said. "If the herring do start to move before that date, they'll mass [at the blocked site]. But as long as we have a flow through there on October first, it should be okay and we'll have the highest success this way."

Save the Bay BayKeeper John Torgan, who has seen migrations as late as October, agreed.

"Passage is the critical thing," he said. "They [herring] are tremendously hardy critters. They can survive if the water is muddy or still, but they have to be able to get through eventually."

According to officials, it is likely that the DOT will have to temporarily open the creek then resume construction once the migration is complete.

"They [culvert crews] are still de-watering," Mr. Fondi said, "That water table is high, and it's a very tricky area to do construction. Our goal was to first stabilize the area, and in the meantime, work forward in all of this construction. But the herring run is on our minds. Making it work is one of our goals, and if we have to stop what we're doing to do it, we will."

That priority is good news to environmentalists and the Narragansett Bay ecosystem. According to Mr. Torgan, the decision to open the river may have a vital and positive impact on the herring population.

"The success of this generation may dictate the potential future of the run," he said. "If we can establish annual herring runs in and out of the lake, then we've done well. But to lose even a single year class can affect the population in the future."

The herring migrating this fall spawned in Brickyard Pond last spring. This generation of fish will return to the ocean for about four years to mature, then return to the pond to lay their own eggs, completing their cycle.

Bad for residents

The decision may be good for the environment, but culvert area residents will continue to make sacrifices after living with the construction for nearly a year.

Romeo Dalessio's property at 475 Middle Highway boarders the creek. He said the project is costing him time and money.

"We have to take a detour every day to get around the construction," he said. "Every day we burn three or four miles in extra gas each time we leave. There are bricks moving away from my house and cracks in the sidewalk. Usually you say something like this means progress, but there's no progress here now."

Elizabeth Welshman, who lives at 470 Middle Highway, supports the positive environmental affects of the project, but is ready for an end.

"They need to do something different," Mrs. Welshman said. "I'm all for the fish project, but the engineering has gone awry."

She complained that delays are now affecting her own environment.

"I can smell the water from my house," she said. "It smells awful. It's full of algae."

The DOT also expects to incur additional costs in time and money because of the herring run. But, according to Mr. Fondi, added costs are consequences his group is willing to absorb to see a successful migration this fall.

Backed up

To date, the Middle Highway culvert construction project is $1.2 million over budget and 10 months past its initial completion date. Originally budgeted at $200,000 and scheduled to be finished on Nov. 15, 2003, a series of mishaps increased the cost and delayed the project's completion. The southern end of Middle Highway — from Maple Avenue to Nayatt Road — has been closed to traffic since September 2003. Original construction plans called for the installation of two concrete culverts (tunnels) under Middle Highway to allow fish to migrate to Narragansett Bay from Brickyard Pond. Problems arose when a sewer pipe that passes under the culverts collapsed in several places after culvert installation was already complete last November.

By Lucy Butler

lbutler@eastbaynewspapers.com