Peninsula Daily News news sources
After nearly five years, $700 million and more than 3 million hours of labor, the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge is finished.
Early today, thousands of runners will file onto the bridge, which runs parallel to the existing span.
Pedestrians will follow, free to spend the day strolling on the bridge before vehicle traffic is turned loose Monday morning.
At 2,800 feet, the structure is the longest suspension bridge built in the United States since the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened in New York City in 1964.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is one of the 30 longest suspension bridges in the world.
Costs certainly have increased since the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge was built in 1940 for $4 million.
It collapsed in a windstorm four months later.
Construction on the current Narrows Bridge began in 1947 and cost $14 million.
It opened in 1950, and a toll of 50 cents each way was charged until 1965.
With the newest bridge, the toll is $3, but it only will be charged to vehicles headed east.
The cost is $1.75 per crossing for the 100,000 people who have signed up for the Good to Go! automated toll-payment system.
The bridge was needed because of congestion.
The DOT projects that tolls will lead to a 15 percent decrease in traffic volume as residents make fewer discretionary trips or find other ways to get to work, such as carpooling or taking the bus, DOT spokeswoman Claudia Cornish said.
The state Route 16 corridor carries up to 90,000 vehicles a day, and the state Department of Transportation had estimated that would grow to 120,000 by 2020 without a new bridge.
The toll bridge will result in fewer vehicles crossing each span, the DOT said, with the corridor now estimated to carry 95,000 vehicles a day by 2020.
Crews have up to 10 months of work left to renovate the existing span.
They will need to close a single lane on the new bridge at night to finish that project.
“We probably have another few months of work todo under the deck,” Cornish said.
