Date:
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Contact:
Claudia Cornish, Tacoma Narrows Bridge Communications Manager, (253) 534-4646
TACOMA – During evening hours on Monday, March 19, the first of two expansion joints will arrive at the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge construction site. Weighing about 100 tons and measuring 70-feet long by 15-feet wide, the expansion joint will be delivered to the new west anchorage on a 165-foot long semi truck supported by 21 axles.
The process of delivering the joint to the west anchorage may require a little patience from westbound State Route 16 drivers. The oversized load will use both westbound lanes when traveling across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. It will exit westbound SR 16 at 24th Street NW, where a left-turn maneuver off the ramp could take up to an hour to accomplish. Flaggers will help drivers get through the area while the delivery is taking place.
Once the west joint is on site, the specially-outfitted truck will return to the mid-west to reload and deliver the east expansion joint to the east anchorage. It should arrive in a few weeks, weather permitting. When the east joint arrives, crews will close the eastbound SR 16 exit to Jackson Avenue so the truck can use the ramp to access the new east anchorage. Details of the Jackson ramp closure will be announced as the time approaches.
The expansion joints consist of rows of steel joined with neoprene strip seals. Acting like accordions, their purpose is to absorb up to 56 inches each of deck expansion and contraction caused by thermal changes, wind forces, traffic movement or seismic motion.
The expansion joints were fabricated specifically for this bridge by the D.S. Brown Company at its Minnesota facility. Having only two expansion joints on the new deck is in sharp contrast to the existing bridge deck, which contains 44 expansion joints spaced about 120 feet apart along the deck. The difference in expansion joint numbers lies in the type of decks – the existing deck is concrete slabs separated by smaller expansion joints; the new deck is made of welded steel deck sections that will create a single mile-long deck sandwiched by the two massive joints.
Other bridge work will require lane closures next week. From 9 p.m. Thursday, March 22, to 7 a.m. Friday, March 23, crews will close the westbound SR 16 right lane on the east side of the existing bridge. The lane will be closed again from 10 p.m. Friday, March 23, to 7 a.m. Saturday, March 24. During the closures, crews will drill holes into the shoulder area above the existing east anchorage. The holes will allow crews to pour concrete and place rebar into new walls inside the existing anchorage as part of the ongoing seismic retrofit work on the existing bridge.
For more information on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge project, please visit www.tacomanarrowsbridge.com or www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/
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