Date:  Monday, April 19, 2010

Contact: Chris Tams, WSDOT Project Engineer, 360-905-1310 (Vancouver)
Abbi Russell, WSDOT Communications, 360-905-2058 (Vancouver)

VANCOUVER – The $11.6 million Vancouver Rail Bypass and West 39th Street bridge project reaches a big milestone this week as crews start setting girders on the 740-foot bridge over the Vancouver rail yard.

The first girders arrive from Tacoma tomorrow, April 20. Crews will work over the next two weeks to set a total of 30 concrete and steel girders, ranging in length from 100 to 178 feet each. The girders, which weigh as much as 100 tons a piece, are lifted into place with cranes and secured by hand.

After the girders are secured, crews will install mats made of reinforcing steel and start pouring concrete to form the bridge deck. It will take nearly 2,500 tons of concrete and 140 tons of steel to build the bridge deck, sidewalks and guardrail.

Once complete, the new West 39th Street bridge will take cars, bicyclists and pedestrians over the Vancouver rail yard, where trains are expected to occupy the railroad tracks an average of 20 hours each day by the year 2020. Moving traffic up and over the tracks increases safety and mobility for all traffic in the rail yard.

The bridge is expected to open to traffic in summer 2011, and the entire project is scheduled for completion in spring 2012.

For more information about the Vancouver Rail Bypass and West 39th Street Bridge project, please visit: www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/rail/PNWRC_Vancouver.

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WSDOT's mission is to keep people, businesses and the economy moving by operating and improving the state's transportation systems. To learn more about what we're doing, go to www.wsdot.wa.gov/news for pictures, videos, news and blogs. Real time traffic information is available at www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic or by dialing 511.

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