For the first time in over 60 years, fish have returned to upper Guichon Creek, marking a major ecological milestone for the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and the larger watershed. What began as an emergency response to a failing culvert evolved into a landmark ecological creek restoration project, setting a precedent for urban stream revitalization. By daylighting a section of the historically buried creek, constructing a naturalized fishway, this project not only reduced flood risks but also restored vital fish habitat, enhanced biodiversity, and created a long-term sustainability model for BCIT’s campus.

Guichon Creek once flowed freely through what is now BCIT’s Burnaby campus, but urbanization led to its confinement within a 600m-long culvert, severing habitat connectivity and preventing fish migration. In recent years, the aging culvert had begun to fail, triggering multiple sinkholes and posing an increasing risk to infrastructure, public safety, and water quality. Rather than pursuing another temporary repair, KWL & McElhanney (the Team) proposed a bold, nature-based alternative: daylighting the creek to restore ecological function while mitigating flood risk. The success of the project builds a framework for BCIT to use for future nature-based flood mitigations.

This first phase of BCIT’s long-term vision for Guichon Creek restoration reintroduced fish passage to upper sections of the creek, improving habitat conditions for key Pacific Northwest species, including salmonids. Beyond its ecological benefits, the project transformed BCIT’s campus into a living laboratory, providing students with hands-on opportunities to study climate resilience, habitat engineering, and water resource management.

By proving the feasibility and benefits of daylighting, this project has catalyzed BCIT’s broader vision for restoring Guichon Creek, laying the foundation for future daylighting efforts and watershed enhancements across the campus.

Faced with a failing culvert and growing infrastructure risks, the team led by KWL & McElhanney in close collaboration with BCIT, championed daylighting as a long-term, climate-resilient option. Instead of just replacing the culvert, the team designed a daylit, vegetated corridor & naturalized fishway, and restored connectivity between upper and lower Guichon Creek. Daylighting improved habitat conditions, biodiversity and strengthened BCIT’s climate adaptation strategy by enhancing flood resilience.

The engineered channel was carefully designed to withstand severe weather events, ensuring year-round functionality and resilience against high-flow conditions. Diverse channel morphology was implemented to support fish rearing and migration, mimicking natural stream hydraulics to allow salmonids to navigate upstream. The project was designed to be compatible with current and future creek alignments through segments of box culverts with customized baffles. This allows fish passage during the interim condition and enables adaptability to the future creek realignment and daylighting.

KWL’s leadership in establishing clear objectives enabled the team & stakeholders to shorten the design & construction timeline to just 8 months—work that typically takes years. This clarity drove efficient design execution & rapid, collaborative decisions during construction. Real-time design reviews & adaptive planning ensured safe progress despite a challenging 1:50-year Atmospheric River Event.

The project’s innovative daylighting approach restored fish passage to upper Guichon Creek for the first time in 60 years, improving habitat connectivity and flood resilience. The project enhanced biodiversity, reintroduced salmonids, and strengthened BCIT’s climate adaptation strategy. By transforming the creek into a living laboratory, it provides hands-on learning opportunities while setting the foundation for future watershed restoration across BCIT’s campus.