Date:
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Contact:
Theresa Gren, Hood Canal Bridge Communications Manager, (253) 305-6450
Tacoma – WSDOT and Kiewit-General (K-G) floated the second set of new State Route 104 Hood Canal Bridge pontoons out of the Tacoma Concrete Technology graving dock at 8 p.m., Monday, July 16. Fifteen feet of water filled the graving dock, lifting up the five structures that weigh between 7 and 8 million pounds each.
Tug boats then towed the pontoons out of the graving dock and moored them in Blair Waterway. Crews prepared three of the five pontoons for their immediate 35-mile journey to Seattle. The remaining two pontoons leave for Seattle on July 28.
Once in Seattle, these five pontoons will be moored at the Port of Seattle. Crews will then begin assembling them with previously completed pontoons to form a “U” shape around the location where the draw span retractable assembly units pull back.
“K-G and WSDOT delivered these pontoons a month ahead of schedule. Crews took lessons learned from the first cycle of pontoon construction and applied them,” said Scott Ireland, construction manager. “This is an important project milestone leading up to the May-June 2009 bridge closure and east-half replacement.”
WSDOT and K-G will construct 14 new pontoons inside the Concrete Technology graving dock in four cycles-- three pontoons were built in the first cycle, five pontoons constructed in this second cycle, four pontoons in the third cycle, and two pontoons in the fourth cycle.
Another three pontoons, built during the west-half bridge replacement in the early 1980s, are currently being retrofitted. The completed east-half pontoon roadway sections and fully assembled east-half draw span will be floated into place during the May-June 2009 bridge closure.
Each day 20,000 vehicles travel over the 1.5 mile Hood Canal Bridge, making this world’s longest floating bridge over salt water vital to the economic and social success of the region. To learn more about the Hood Canal Bridge Project, visit www.hoodcanalbridge.com.
< Back to News Home