Project of the Week - Final Hood Canal Bridge draw span pontoon secured
The "YD" pontoon, a piece of the Hood Canal Bridge replacement, is submerged to connect with seven other draw span pontoons already in place at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle. |
Completion of the
Hood Canal Bridge Project drew closer last week as the final draw span pontoon was placed at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle. On Saturday, Dec. 22, WSDOT and Kiewit-General construction crews completed securing the eighth and final underwater draw span pontoon beneath the seven others already installed. This was the final step in assembling eight pontoons into the U-shaped draw span unit for the bridge.
The latest pontoon, named YD, weighs approximately seven million pounds, is 60 feet long, 152 feet wide, and 16 feet tall. It has eight cylindrical extensions that fit into the pontoons above. The linking process required submerging pontoon YD, positioning the other seven draw span pontoons above it, then raising YD into place. The pontoon is one of three that will ensure the two sides of the U-shaped draw won't twist and turn when the retractable portion of the bridge opens and closes.
The two retractable sections will be joined and installed in the middle of the U-shaped draw span once the third cycle of pontoon construction is completed in early 2008. In May 2008, construction will begin on new columns and the roadway for the top of these 10 connected pontoons. Electrical and mechanical components that operate the draw span will then be installed.
The Hood Canal Bridge is the world’s longest floating bridge over saltwater and is undergoing an extensive retrofit, which is scheduled to be completed in mid-June 2009.
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Incident of the Week - Close call for Incident Response Team member - a reminder of the dangers of the job
Fellow IRT members stand near the back of Dave Ball's IRT truck, which was hit during a call out on I-5. |
Incident Response Team (IRT) driver Dave Ball was roving Interstate 5 on Dec. 14, when he got called to clear debris on southbound I-5. A vehicle traveling northbound on I-5 near Fife left the roadway and collided with the cable-barrier. The good news was that the cable-barrier prevented the vehicle from traveling into the oncoming lanes. However, dirt and debris ended up in the southbound lanes and posed a hazard to drivers.
Ball, a seven-year veteran from Olympic Region’s IRT crew, pulled his vehicle into the left lane of southbound I-5. He activated his lights and his arrow board, which flashed an arrow pointing to the right – alerting drivers to move over. Ball grabbed a shovel and began the seemingly routine job of clearing the mud and dirt out of the roadway when he heard a “pop.” The pop was a SUV that slammed into the back of Ball’s truck, causing his truck to hit him. David knew he needed to get out of the roadway and made his way to the median where he collapsed.
While emergency crews responded to Ball and the driver of the other vehicle, three lanes of I-5 southbound were closed for two hours. Traffic backed up into King County.
Ball was transported to the hospital. He was banged up but suffered no major injuries or broken bones. Sadly, the driver of the causing vehicle died at the hospital. This incident serves as a reminder of how Incident Response Team members risk their lives to ensure the safety of the motoring public and how critical it is for motorists to pay attention to the roadway ahead of them.
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Update of projects under way
SR 6 Chehalis - With just their hands and some basic tools, 40 men erected a 180-foot bridge in six days. They were largely WSDOT bridge crew workers, and the bridge is a temporary Bailey-style bridge over the Chehalis River in the Meskill-Dryad area, connecting Leudinghaus Road and River Road to State Route (SR) 6. The Lewis County bridge was washed out during the December floods. The crew worked for 12 to 14 hours each day under near-freezing temperatures and pouring rain. The Bailey bridge is a military bridge invented by a British civil engineer, Donald Bailey, and designed to be constructed, moved and replaced in just several hours. The components of this bridge came from WSDOT’s storage facility in Tacoma. It consists of 295 total panels and transoms, and 450 pins holding them all together. There are very few of these bridges in Washington state and only this one in the Southwest region of the state. The Bailey bridge will remain in place until Lewis County constructs a permanent replacement, likely in about 18 months. The cost for this bridge is $250,000.
SR 6 Pe Ell - A closed section of SR 6 was reopened to alternating one-way traffic during daylight hours on Saturday, December 29. The limited reopening is only possible with adequate visibility and the road may close again during foggy or snowy conditions, or a big rain event. Two spotters and a flagger will be posted at the site while the road is open to traffic. The roadway still has some sections where lanes are narrow and there is gravel over the roadway as a temporary fix for some of the flood damage. Due to a very unstable slope, SR 6 has been closed in Pacific and Lewis Counties from the vicinity of Elk Prairie Road (mile post 19) to the vicinity of Meyer Road (mile post 27). The unstable slope will be repaired as soon as geotechnical experts can drill into the mountain to determine the nature of the slope and what needs to be done in order to stabilize it.
I-405 Renton - Not wanting to take any chances, WSDOT contractor, Tri-State Construction, worked non-stop over the weekend to complete all three runs of pipe in the new emergency pumping system to protect I-405 from a heavy rainstorm. WSDOT now has two pumping systems comprised of three pipes to the south and one pipe to the north to help drain Thunder Hills Creek and prevent the water from going under or over I-405 near Benson Road.
On Dec. 3, record-breaking rain caused a sinkhole to develop adjacent to the southbound shoulder of I-405. Upon closer examination, engineers discovered the culvert under the freeway collapsed and more rain could put the roadway in jeopardy. To prevent Thunder Hills Creek run-off from doing any more damage, crews moved in quickly on Dec. 10 and began an elaborate operation to divert water to a nearby wetland. In the long-term, WSDOT is developing a design to replace the entire 400-foot long culvert that runs 60 feet under I-405.
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Announcements
New WSDOT Seattle area traffic computer tests extend into the new year
WSDOT traffic engineers rescheduled testing the new traffic computer due to significant weather and emergency roadwork during the past several weeks. Engineers had planned to finish testing a new server-based system to control the WSDOT traffic map, freeway cameras, ramp meters, electronic message signs and travel times by the end of this year. To confirm everything will function properly before the switch is made engineers will run a week of daily live tests and a full weekend of live tests in January. During these tests sections of the color-coded traffic flow map will appear white and travel times for those commutes will be unavailable as engineers test live data on the new system. If there is an emergency or foul weather the tests will be rescheduled.
WSDOT’s current mainframe computer is over 15 years old and handles eight times more data then when it was first turned on. The new software-based system will allow WSDOT to expand the traffic flow map and add new traffic cameras in the future.
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Gray Notebook Highlight - Trip Reduction Performance Program
The 2003 Legislature created the Trip Reduction Performance Program to provide incentives or compensation to public and private organizations that implement programs that provide services to employees that result in fewer vehicle trips arriving at worksites. During the 2005 - 2007 time frame, a total of 18 projects were selected for funding. Of the 18 selected, 15 programs were completed, and four exceeded their goal of reducing a set number of trips. The City of Redmond's Employer Commuter Club project accounted for 67 percent of all the trips reduced in this time period. Statewide, the overall Trip Reduction Performance Program exceeded the proposed trip reductions by over 36 percent. Over the course of the two years, the individual projects removed nearly 1.1 million commute vehicle trips from the highway system. More details on this topic can be found in the Commute Options Annual Update of the December 2007 Gray Notebook: www.wsdot.wa.gov/accountability.
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Upcoming January meeting
10, noon - 2 p.m., PSRC public outreach, Destination 2040 - Seattle: The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) is updating Destination 2030, its 30-year transportation plan for the Puget Sound region, and they want to get public input on issues (climate change, congestion, etc.), transportation alternatives, criteria and environmental impacts to be included in the plan. Location: PSRC, 1011 Western Avenue, #500, Seattle.
For more details, please visit the WSDOT Calendar of Events.
Weekly Report Archive
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