PORT ANGELES — Five trucks, each lugging a 170,000-pound girder the length of three semi-trailers, snaked through town early Tuesday morning.
The girders, brought from Concrete Technology Corp.’s plant in Tacoma, were bound for the Tumwater Creek bridge construction project on Eighth Street n Port Angeles.
The delivery of the first five of 25 girders went smoothly, Teresa Pierce, city spokeswoman, said.
The longest traffic delay was three minutes, to allow the trucks to move at walking speed across Marine Drive, at the Port Angeles’ street’s intersection with Cedar Street.
Each girder measured 155 feet long and 7 feet high.
“You think you know how big that is until one of them goes by you,” Pierce said.
The twin bridges on Eighth Street which spanned Tumwater and Valley creeks for about 70 years are being replaced in an $18.4 million project that is expected to be completed in November.
The 25 girders needed for construction of the Valley Creek bridge will be delivered during five days in June.
Tumwater Truck Route will remain closed today through April 9 when the last of the girders for the Tumwater Creek bridge arrive.
On Tuesday, the trucks carrying the girders traveled along Front Street to Marine Drive, turned around at Westport Shipyard building and then moved up to a staging area at Cedar and Eighth streets.
Cedar Street was closed for the transport.
That is one of three staging areas that girders will be taken to. The others are at A and Eighth streets and the construction site on the Tumwater Truck Route.
