Drivers heading across the Hood Canal Bridge this week should be aware that they may be delayed.
Daytime closures are scheduled for both today and Thursday this week.
Each scheduled closure of the bridge can last for up to 40 minutes.
Scheduled test openings are:
• Today, 12:30 p.m.
• Thursday, 1:45 p.m.
No daytime tests are scheduled on New Year’s Day.
The state Department of Transportation has canceled intermittent nighttime work this week.
The work can require 90-minute bridge closures between 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., with no advance notice of individual closures.
But drivers will not have to contend with nighttime closures this week, since they have been canceled through Friday.
Bridge openings for marine vessels, which are from 40 minutes to an hour, still will occur as needed. No advance notice is given.
The eastern half of the bridge was replaced in a nearly $500 million project that closed the bridge for several weeks in May and June.
After that, retrofitting was done on the western half.
The scheduled daytime drawspan openings allow the testing of the ballast — rock and seawater, but eventually just rock — in pontoons of the floating bridge to ensure that both the new east side and the west side retrofit work together, Transportation engineers have said.
The timing of the tests coincides with slack tides.
Scheduled closures are listed online at www.hood canalbridge.com.
Test message alerts about bridge closures can be received by signing up online at the same Web site.
To find out if the bridge is open, dial 5-1-1, or phone toll free at 800-419-9085. Neither phone number will provide advance notice of closures.