Date:
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Contact:
Denys Tak, WSDOT Project Engineer, (800) 545-1393 (toll-free)
Heidi Sause, WSDOT Communications, 360-905-2057 (Vancouver)
LONGVIEW – Work on a weather-dependent painting project to preserve the Lewis and Clark Bridge on State Route 433 resumes Monday, March 21, after winter weather shut down work activities for nearly four months.
For the next eight months, drivers crossing the bridge will encounter narrowed lanes, nighttime lane closures and minor delays while contractor crews repaint the steel beams above the roadway.
“Drivers will see the painting work areas, but they won’t see a lot of painting crews,” said WSDOT Project Engineer Denys Tak. “Large containment platforms will enclose the bridge, essentially forming short tunnels around the roadway.”
Crews will work inside the containment platforms to sandblast away old paint and corrosion, and apply a fresh layer of protective paint.
Construction will continue during the warm weather months for the next three years, and is scheduled to be complete in 2013. A height restriction of 16.5 feet will remain in effect throughout painting work.
This is the third and final contract in a series of projects to restore and preserve the mile-long historic bridge. The bridge was built to span the Columbia River in 1929 and carries 21,000 vehicles a day between Longview, Wash., and Rainier, Ore.
This $40 million phase of the SR 433, Lewis and Clark Bridge painting project includes $12.3 million in federal funding through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Project photos are available on WSDOT’s Flickr site.
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