SHINE — The final construction-related scheduled daytime closing of the Hood Canal Bridge will start at 12:30 p.m. today and last about 40 minutes, the state Department of Transportation said.
But that won’t be the end of traffic delays that have afflicted drivers on the 1.5-mile floating span since last summer.
Those with a flight to catch at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport or a show to see in Seattle will continue to be confronted by unscheduled 90-minute nighttime closings for at least three more weeks, beginning Monday.
The delays will be intermittent from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. from Monday through Thursday each week.
There will be no nighttime closures for construction work Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Those nighttime closures are in addition to closures to allow marine traffic to pass through an opened drawbridge. Transportation does not announce those closures of the bridge in advance, either.
During the nighttime stoppages, while Olympic Peninsula and Kitsap Peninsula drivers wait at the bridge’s entry points, Kiewit General Construction Co. workers will inch through a 93-page checklist to review all systems on the retrofitted western drawspan.
Once that’s done, Kiewit must conduct open-and-close routines with both halves of the bridge 20 straight times without a hitch before they can say the $520 million, traffic-delay-plagued overhaul is done.
A single closure cycle takes about 30 minutes, Transportation spokesman Joe Irwin said Wednesday.
Required maritime openings will be included in the 20-test cycle.
Why could daytime construction-related closures be scheduled and announced in advance, while nighttime closures can’t be?
Daytime closings could be scheduled because they occurred in conjunction with slack tides, when the spans are at their stablest and when it’s easiest to adjust the ballast in the cells of the drawspan, Irwin said.
Nighttime closings can’t be scheduled because the tests that are conducted change from night to night and take various amounts of time, he said.
“It depends on what they are doing and what they are finding. It’s very difficult to say. It’s wholly dependent on the tests.”
The east draw-span was replaced in May and June, causing a five-week closure that earned Kiewit a $600,000 bonus for finishing a week ahead of schedule.
That was followed by 154 construction- and maintenance-related shutdowns from June through December — a fivefold closure increase compared to 2008 — while the western half was retrofitted and the ballast in the bridge was adjusted.
It wasn’t supposed to take that long, but the ballast work that ensured the two halves fit together properly was more difficult than anticipated, Transportation officials said.
On the other hand, the nighttime work has gone more quickly than expected.
Officials had predicted the second week of January that the last three weeks of intermittent nighttime closures would start Feb. 8.
Each bridge span is 500 feet long and weighs 30 tons.
Kiewit will earn $20 million for its work retrofitting the western span and $400 million for its work on the eastern span.
“The replacement and retrofit project is coming to a close,” project manager Jeff Cook said in a statement.
“After this work is complete, the only scheduled closures planned for the bridge will be annual inspections.”
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
