PORT ANGELES — The “feet” of what will become the new concrete bridge carrying Lauridsen Boulevard over Peabody Creek have been firmly planted in the ground as work continues on the $4.5 million bridge-replacement project.
Jeremy Pozernick, city public works inspector and the city’s project manager for the bridge replacement, said crews have finished pouring the 11 concrete shafts that will form the bases of the columns that eventually will support the bridge overhead.
“They’ve all been poured and tested and passed,” Pozernick said.
The 3-foot-wide concrete shafts, reinforced with steel, are secured 70 feet into the ground, Pozernick explained.
In the coming weeks, Pozernick said, crews with Kent-based Scarsella Bros. will pour concrete caps on the shafts to allow them to hold the columns that will support the bridge deck.
Crews also have started work on manholes that will provide access to stormwater-treatment structures that will be buried beneath either side of the bridge, Pozernick said.
The structures will treat stormwater collected from the bridge and discharge it into Peabody Creek below, he explained.
Scarsella Bros. is completing the bridge-replacement project, expected to wrap up in late January or early February, under a $4.5 million contract with the city.
A federal grant is funding 80 percent of the replacement costs, with the city taking up the remaining 20 percent.
The contractor also is building an underpass below U.S. Highway 101 just west of Deer Park Road under a $4.8 million contract with Clallam County.
The new Lauridsen bridge will include two 12-foot-wide vehicle lanes, an eastbound center turn lane and two 5-foot-wide bicycle lanes, all part of a driving surface 18 feet wider than the old bridge.
The new bridges replaces the previous 44-year-old structure, which was demolished in August.
The sidewalks of the new bridge, which will resemble the two Eighth Street bridges, also will be wider than those of the old.
A new street light at the intersection of Lauridsen Boulevard and Race Street and improvements to the surface of the intersection are also part of the bridge-replacement project.
Detours around the closed section of Lauridsen Boulevard direct eastbound Lauridsen traffic north onto Eunice Street, east on Eighth Street and then south on Race Street back to Lauridsen on the east side.
Westbound Lauridsen traffic is being directed to follow the same route in reverse.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsula
dailynews.com.
