SHINE — Nightly closures for testing of the Hood Canal Bridge are planned beginning Monday, and will continue for at least six days, now that engineers have fixed a problem with the west-half hydraulic system.
Test openings will occur between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. for about six nights, including weekends. The delays are for up to 90 minutes. The times of the closures are not announced ahead of time.
After those tests are completed, engineers plan about three nights of tests of both the east and west draw spans, to see how well they work together, the state Department of Transportation said in a statement released Tuesday.
All testing could be completed in as soon as 10 days, the department said.
Transportation announced last Thursday that the three sections of the west side lift span were operating at different speeds caused by unequal hydraulic pressure.
A series of diagnostic tests pinpointed the cause of the problem and crews adjusted the systems, confirming that the systems worked properly during two test openings late last week.
“With the lift span issue resolved, we can continue with the reminder of our functional testing on the west half and take a large step toward completing construction-related openings of the bridge,” said Kevin Dayton, regional administrator.
After the floating bridge’s east-half replacement project was completed ahead of schedule in early June, travelers over the bridge experienced months of scheduled daytime delays.
Traffic was stopped for 40 minutes or more each time to permit tests of the ballast in retrofitted west-half draw span pontoons. In addition drivers encountered unscheduled nighttime closures.
Closures for marine traffic also are unscheduled because of federal Homeland Security regulations.
Before the hydraulic system was fixed, the bridge project budget had grown to $519 million.
After the bridge reopened in June, the retrofit project to install matching mechanical components on the west half was originally scheduled to be completed in December, but that date was pushed back to mid-January for ballast tests and to the end of February for all testing.
West-half functional testing is about 50 percent finished, Transportation officials said.
There are three lift spans located on both halves of the bridge.
They are the sections that serve as the grated roadway near the center spans and rise about nine feet so that the draw span pontoons can retract to open a channel for marine vessels passing through, or during heavy winds and seas to relieve pressure on the more than mile-long structure.
