Date:
Friday, May 05, 2006
Contact:
Claudia Cornish, Tacoma Narrows Bridge Communications Manager, (253) 534-4646
GIG HARBOR - The WSDOT and its design-build contractor, Tacoma Narrows Constructors (TNC), today announced the contractor’s schedule for completing construction and opening to traffic the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The open-to-traffic date is expected to come in early July 2007.
WSDOT’s Linea Laird, bridge project manager, welcomed the TNC schedule as helping the public begin to look forward to when the new bridge will be available to travelers.
"Only a little ground has been lost against our earlier hope that we would achieve an opening next April. But in just a few weeks the first of the bridge deck sections will be delivered and we will be turning the corner to home," Laird said. "We have watched the contractor overcome a difficult winter construction season, along with the setback discovered when new cable wire had to be ordered to replace the wire that could not be placed on the bridge because of unexpected corrosion."
Groundbreaking for the bridge occurred October 5, 2002. The original construction schedule in TNC’s contract anticipated that the project would take about 55 months to complete. But that proved over-optimistic as some of the bridge’s technical challenges were encountered. On the new schedule, the construction duration would be 58 months and the hoped for opening in April 2007 would slip to July.
Laird said that to maintain so high a level of schedule discipline on a project of this scale and complexity is a high achievement on the contractor’s part, especially when considering its high level of safety and its top quality construction work.
"We are excited at the receipt of a schedule for the rest of the work that will bring the project in within just a few weeks of our goals at the start of the work," said Laird.
Laird and TNC’s project manager, Manuel Rondón, travel next week to observe the final loading and departure of the vessel with the first 16 completed sections of the bridge deck from their fabrication site at the Samsung Shipyard in Korea. The much anticipated off-loading of this vessel and erection of the first units, are planned to start the week of June 19 and to take several weeks. Two more shipments with the rest of the units will follow.
"I’m pleased with where we are," said Rondón. "The project team has effectively managed all the different stages of construction and persevered to achieve major milestones from the exact landing of the massive caissons on the first attempt to minimizing the disruptive effect of defective wire. The performance has been excellent and everyone is proud of its contribution to reach the point where we currently are."
Bridge progress in recent weeks has included the completion of cable spinning and compaction on the north cable, including the placement of the "suspender" cables that will hold the 450-ton bridge deck sections. Most of the adjoining road work is completed and the toll plaza is finished. The bridge deck placement, which is one of the most challenging technical aspects of the project, is expected to take place over the course of several weeks, beginning in mid-June. Then the road will be competed and final details completed.
With the contractor’s new schedule in hand, WSDOT staff will also begin work with the State Treasurer’s Office to adjust the timing of the commencement of the project’s debt repayment program. Other budget refinements to meet the timing of the bridge opening in relation to operating budgets are expected to be addressed by the Legislature next session.
Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald, who welcomed the schedule submission, said, "WSDOT is watching that everything is done to speed the opening the bridge. Of course, we can’t forget that even when the new bridge opens, the planned improvement work on the existing bridge will immediately start and carry on for several more months."
"We see the progress and we feel a huge set of positive expectations as the important transportation facility comes closer to contributing to the speed and convenience of people’s trips. Opening day is beginning to seem not that far off," said MacDonald.
For more information on the new bridge, visit www.tacomanarrowsbridge.com.
< Back to News Home