SHINE — A series of closures of the Hood Canal Bridge this week has ended.
The state Department of Transportation credited “dedicated maintenance workers and fair weather” with helping to wrap up repairs to the west-half drawspan a full day ahead of schedule. A planned closure tonight has been canceled.
Closures of the bridge occurred nightly Monday through Wednesday as Transportation crews “got into a groove” and welded 28 divots to fix an issue with the drawspan much earlier than anticipated, a Transportation spokesperson said.
Crews repaired depressions in the 1.5-inch thick steel plates that run the length of the drawspan and were making opening the west half of the bridge increasingly difficult. The plates protect the pontoon’s concrete from 4-foot diameter steel rollers which guide the floating bridge’s drawspan on its precise track as it opens and closes.
Because the divots developed directly beneath the 32 west-half rollers, maintenance crews had to open the draw span and close the bridge to traffic starting at 8:45 p.m. to complete the work.
