SHINE — Outwardly, it looks like the Hood Canal Bridge’s new east half is nearly done.
Tuesday afternoon, as workers installed and wired road signs and lamp posts, the bridge’s east-half road surface looked clean, ready and striped to go.
State Department of Transportation vehicles cruised back and forth on the three-quarter-mile floating structure’s smooth, wide roadway.
But until the bridge’s new east-half draw span opens and closes in 20 consecutive, problem-free cycles to meet the $500 million project’s operational standards, Transportation officials won’t sign off on contractor Kiewit-General’s work.
And until the tests are complete, neither will officials announce a definitive date for reopening the bridge, although the party to celebrate its renewal is set for Saturday.
One by one, Transportation and Kiewit-General Construction Co. crews are checking off the electrical, mechanical and hydraulic line items of a 93-page list in preparation for draw-span testing.
Although it was scheduled to begin Tuesday, the 20-test cycle didn’t happen.
“That was just working through the 1,400 checklist that has to be done,” said project spokeswoman Becky Hixson late Friday afternoon.
“We were hoping to get to the 20 test cycles, but we didn’t get there today.”
That test cycle is expected to roll today.
Scott Ireland, bridge construction manager, led Northwest media representatives from one end of the bridge’s sparkling new east half from the east truss to the new east-half control tower Tuesday afternoon, but like other officials, Ireland was hesitant to say exactly which day this week the bridge would reopen.
An opening ceremony has been planned at 11 a.m. Saturday at Kitsap County’s Salsbury Point park on Wheeler Street near the bridge’s east end, regardless of the status of the bridge.
The celebration then will move to Port Townsend.
Spans across the water
“This is where east meets west,” Ireland proudly announced, gesturing to the bridge’s new draw span, which gently touched its sister west-half span like two fingers slowly coming together in the middle of Hood Canal’s lightly choppy waters.
Giant round steel rollers guided the engine-driven span into alignment with the west draw span, each 300 feet long.
Three lift spans were also briefly tested in preliminary checks.
The lift spans, which hold the roadway surface above the draw spans, rise before the floating draw spans can part, then come together on the water.
Red laser lights mounted at the bridge’s railings check the span alignment.
Phil Wallace, contractor General Construction Company’s area manager, joined Ireland on the tour.
He said that the pontoons on which the draw spans float have a leak detection system that can measure as little as an inch of water inside the nearly hollow pontoons.
That ensures the water-tight integrity of the bridge, he said.
Hixson said 20 draw-span tests already were conducted at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle before they were towed to the bridge work site for installation.
“The only reason we have to do it here is because now we are putting the individual piece into the whole system,” Hixson said. “Now we have to see that the entire system works with it in place.”
Even if the crews have 19 successful tests and then the draw span doesn’t work on the 20th test, they must begin the testing sequence again.
In September, the bridge’s west half will be upgraded with the same mechanisms used in the east half.
Closures on the west half in September will commence only after 10 p.m. and overnight, with the bridge being closed for no more than an hour and a half at a time, Hixson said.
About 16,000 vehicles cross the bridge each day it is open.
During the closure since May 1, commuters between the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas have used the bus and water shuttle service between the temporary Shine Pit park and ride and South Point ferry dock in Jefferson County and Lofall dock and Port Gamble park and ride, driven around the canal on U.S. Highway 101 or taken the ferry between Port Townsend and Keystone.
________
Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
