Date:
Friday, September 28, 2007
Contact:
Becky Hixson, Hood Canal Bridge Communications Manager, (253) 305-6450
TACOMA – This weekend WSDOT and Kiewit-General will take 900-feet of concrete pontoons on a 50-mile trip from Seattle back to their temporary “home” in Port Gamble Bay. The three connected pontoons, named R, S and T, are scheduled to leave Seattle’s Terminal 91 at 6 p.m. Sunday night and arrive in the Kitsap Peninsula’s Port Gamble Bay at 10 a.m. Monday.
The story behind R, S and T started back in the 1980s. The pontoons were first used to decrease the amount of time the bridge was out of service after the 1979 storm that destroyed the bridge’s west half. By putting R, S and T in the place of the current west-half draw span, engineers opened the bridge to traffic a year before the draw span was completed. Once the west-half draw span was completed, R, S and T were moved to Port Gamble Bay and stored until towed to Seattle for refurbishing in January 2007.
The work required to refurbish R, S and T was completed in only nine months. Crews removed the old roadway and constructed a new, taller, wider roadway on top of the 60-foot wide pontoons so the pontoons match the widened west-half pontoons. Minor structural modifications were also made, a leak detection system was added and lighting systems were updated.
Now, R, S and T are ready to be used a second time - as part of the new Hood Canal Bridge east half. They will be moored and monitored in Port Gamble Bay until installed as part of the new Hood Canal Bridge east half during the six-week May-June 2009 bridge replacement.
Retrofitting these pontoons helps the Hood Canal Bridge project meet its May-June 2009 float-in date and saves tax payers both time and money through refurbishing pontoons rather than building three new ones.
The Hood Canal Bridge is the longest floating bridge over saltwater in the world. WSDOT and K-G lead the world in floating bridge technology. Learn more about this exciting, one-of-a-kind project by visiting www.hoodcanalbridge.com. The site includes web cameras, media kits, animations, historical photos, fact sheets and community stories about the bridge.
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