PORT ANGELES – The state Department of Transportation engineers will conduct a routine inspection of the Elwha River bridge on U.S. Highway 101 west of Port Angeles on Tuesday, causing delays for drivers.
The work will be done from mid-morning to mid-afternoon.
Traffic will be reduced to one alternating lane in each direction. In the event of severe weather conditions, the inspection could be rescheduled, Transportation officials said.
The work is in addition to a four-hour closure of Highway 101 between Barnes Point and East Beach Road for rock removal operations that could occur on the same day, as announced by Olympic National Park.
The inspection is not connected to plans for a planned $30 million replacement of the bridge, officials emphasized.
The 91-year-old bridge will be replaced beginning next summer.
In 2016, engineers found that the Elwha River, freed to its wild state by the removal of two dams ending in 2014, had changed course and scoured the riverbed around the bridge foundation, lowering the riverbed by 14 feet.
The new bridge, expected to be open to traffic in fall 2020, will be 40-feet wide, with two 12-foot lanes and two eight-foot shoulders.
The current bridge is 28-feet wide.
In addition, the new alignment with Olympic Hot Springs Road will have a more gentle curve allowing a faster speed limit at the east end of the bridge, engineers said.
For more information, see https://tinyurl.com/PDN-NewElwhaRiverbridge.
