PORT ANGELES – Closure of the Tumwater Truck Route beneath the slowly disappearing Tumwater Creek bridge, originally set for Monday, will now be on Wednesday.
The closure will extend through next Sunday.
Closure of the Valley Creek bridge on Eighth Street remains on schedule, set for the morning of Sept. 24.
The Tumwater Creek bridge on Eighth Street was closed on Aug. 20.
The 71-year-old twin wooden trestle spans are being demolished and rebuilt as concrete bridges in a $18.4 million project.
Work by Parsons RCI Inc. of Sumner is expected to be completed by Nov. 1, 2008.
On Wednesday morning, the Tumwater Truck Route will be blocked on the north side of the bridge just past the Pettit Oil Co.’s CFN cardlock gas station at 605 S. Tumwater Truck Route.
On the south side of the bridge, the roadway will be blocked at the Lauridsen Boulevard intersection.
Trucks will be rerouted to and from Marine Drive via Front, First and Lincoln streets, along U.S. Highway 101 instead of the bypass that the truck route usually provides.
At the intersection of First and Lincoln streets, the right-turn lane on the southwest corner – in front of the Lincoln Theatre – has been blocked.
This will allow larger trucks to make the wide turn onto Lincoln Street without colliding with vehicles in the right-turn lane.
During the five-day closure, contractor Axis Crane of Portland, Ore. will work extended hours from about 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to ensure finishing on time, said city spokeswoman Teresa Pierce.
The revised work schedule complies with the city’s noise ordinance, she said.
Wednesday fits better into the contractor’s schedule and also will reduce traffic impacts because of less commuter traffic on the weekend, said Jim Mahlum, the city’s project manager.
This doesn’t mean the contractor is switching to a Wednesday through Sunday schedule for the whole project, he said.
