Date:
Friday, September 28, 2007
Contact:
Archie Allen, WSDOT Bridge Engineer, 425-739-3700 (Bellevue)
Jamie Holter, WSDOT Communications, 206-440-4472 (Seattle)
SEATTLE – Crews from WSDOT’s Bridge Preservation Office will be back out on the I-5 Ship Canal Bridge again this weekend and into next week to continue routine biennial checks of the bridge. Crews are looking for any small cracks, rust, loose bolts or nuts that might lead to more work on the bridge.
Last weekend’s inspection of the upper deck didn’t turn up anything unusual or unexpected. Next week crews turn their attention to other parts of the upper deck.
The maintenance work is expected to be noisy.
Closures
- 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., Sunday, Sept. 30 crews will close one lane of northbound I-5 across the Ship Canal Bridge including the Harvard Ave on-ramp to measure gaps near expansion joints.
- 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday, Oct. 1 through Thursday, Oct. 4, crews will close one lane of the I-5 express lanes from to inspect the bridge. When the express lanes switch northbound at 1 p.m. they will keep one northbound lane closed until work is complete for the day. Crews will be off the road before the afternoon commute.
- Midnight to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6 and Sunday, Oct. 7, crews will keep the express lanes closed. When the lanes reopen northbound, crews will keep two right lanes and the 42nd Street off-ramp closed until 2 p.m.
WSDOT has an aggressive inspection schedule. “We take good care of our bridges,” said state bridge preservation engineer Harvey Coffman. “We inspect nearly all of our bridges at least once every two years and structures we are more concerned about, like the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the SR 520 Bridge, we inspect more frequently.
According to WSDOT’s most recent Bridge Assessment Annual Update, 94 percent of state-owned total bridge deck area (44 million sq. ft.) is in good or fair condition. Bridge structures in poor condition represent approximately 6% (2.6 million sq. ft.) of WSDOT’s total bridge deck area. Nearly half of the bridge deck considered in poor condition is limited to two structures, the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the I-5 Northbound Viaduct between Spokane Street and I-90. The I-5 Northbound Viaduct was repaired in August 2007 and is expected to be removed from the list of bridge decks considered in poor condition at the next assessment in July 2008.
The I-5 Ship Canal Bridge has been substantially retrofitted to today’s earthquake standards. The last remaining retrofit piece is the bridge approaches, or the structure at both ends. The I-5 Ship Canal Bridge carries more than 220,000 vehicles on an average weekday, making it the most heavily traveled bridge in Washington.
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