Engineering a Solution for Hagerty Creek
The City of Snohomish seeks to tame a flooding creek by tunneling through a hill at the foot of Union Avenue.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The city has advertised for bids for the construction of a tunnel through the hill at the foot of Union Avenue as an outlet for Hagerty Creek, which lately overflowed its bounds, washing away a portion of First Street. The tunnel will be 600 feet long and will lead directly into the river, thus removing the bend in the natural bed of the stream. The estimated cost is $3,500.
“The city has advertised for bids for the construction of a tunnel through the hill at the foot of Union Avenue as an outlet for Hagerty Creek.”
This 1893 civic infrastructure project highlights the constant struggle of early Pacific Northwest towns to manage their aggressive landscape and waterways. Managing urban runoff and creek flooding remains a central challenge for Snohomish and similar river-adjacent cities today.
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