Date:  Thursday, April 19, 2007

Contact: Kelly Stowe, WSDOT Communications, (360) 357-2716

LAKEWOOD –WSDOT Secretary Doug MacDonald on Monday will honor six members of the Olympic Region maintenance bridge crew whose innovative solution to removing old paint from bridge suspender cables will save taxpayers millions. The award ceremony will take place at the Lakewood Maintenance facility located at 11211 41st Avenue S.W., in Lakewood.

In the past, removing paint from the suspender cables was difficult and extremely time consuming. Workers in suspended cages scraped each cable by hand.

The crew invented a suspender line stripping and painting machine which is equipped with a vacuum and able to be guided remotely over the cables. The machine is about six times more efficient then the old hand stripping method. It is also safer for the employees. They can work from the sidewalk and do not have to be suspended in a cage a hundred feet off the deck and are not exposed to the paint dust inside the enclosure.

Over the next five years, this tool is expected to save taxpayers an estimated $3.5 million in bridge maintenance costs.

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