The visualizations below enable viewers to see how the Hood Canal Bridge Project engineering feats were accomplished. With a mouse-click, years of construction are condensed into just seconds, making complex engineering and construction easier to understand.
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Bridge replacement
 During the construction closure of the bridge in May-June 2009, tugboats "floated-out" old sections of the bridge and "floated-in" the three new replacement sections.
In fast-motion, this animation demonstrates the process of the bridge replacement activities over the six-week bridge closure.
Pontoon Float-in (Windows Media / 0:12 sec) |
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Pontoons floating out of the graving dock
The graving dock at Concrete Technology Corporation is where WSDOT and Kiewit-General constructed 14 new east-half pontoons. It took four pontoon construction cycles to build all the pontoons.
This animation demonstrates how the pontoons were floated out of the 150-foot wide by 465-foot long graving dock in Tacoma. This process was repeated for each of the four construction cycles:
Pontoon Float-out (Windows Media / 0:43 sec) |
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Pontoon outfitting
Once the individual pontoons were constructed, they were floated from Tacoma to Seattle for outfitting. Crews connected the individual pontoons into three large sections, built the elevated roadway sections on top of the pontoons, installed the electrical and mechanical parts and tested the draw span's retractable assembly units.
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Time-Lapse Videos
Anchors launch from dry dock
The dry dock at Todd Shipyards is where crews constructed the two cycles of twenty new anchors for the Hood Canal Bridge. Watch a time-lapse video of crews launching the completed second cycle of anchors on June 20, 2007:
Anchor Launch Time-lapse Footage (Windows Media Player)
Lift spans arrive at Todd Pacific Shipyards
The Hood Canal Bridge lift spans arrived at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle in June 2008 following a 358-mile journey from Vancouver, Wash. The trip brought the spans down the Columbia River, up the Washington Coast and into the Puget Sound.
Watch lift spans arrive in Seattle (Windows Media Video / 1:01)
Float-outs and concrete pours at Concrete Technology Corporation
Fourteen new pontoons were constructed in Tacoma for the east-half of the Hood Canal Bridge. Watch the pontoons floating out of the graving dock on Dec. 6, 2006.
See time-lapse camera footage of the final concrete pour for new pontoon construction and the fourth cycle float-out of the Hood Canal Bridge Project.