PORT ANGELES — Two barricades that rerouted traffic for about 1¬½ years during the replacement of the Eighth Street bridges have come down.

The newly replaced Valley Creek and Tumwater Creek bridges on Port Angeles’ Eighth Street were opened to traffic on Tuesday.

The next step was to remove barricades that were intended to help redirect the flow of traffic around Port Angeles while Eighth Street was impassable during the project to replace the 70-year-old bridge with wider concrete spans.

On Wednesday, city crews removed:

• A barricade in the middle of Marine Drive that blocked traffic from taking a left onto Cedar Street.

• A barrier at a right turn lane at First and Lincoln streets.

The next traffic adjustments will be the removal of the Pine Street extension to U.S. Highway 101, and the disabling of a traffic light at Tumwater Street and Marine Drive on Monday.

The city will monitor traffic volumes to determine if the signal will be reactivated, said Teresa Pierce, city spokeswoman.

Four-way stops at Eighth and C streets, and 16th and Pine streets will remain for now, she said, but city crews will monitor those intersections to determine if those signals need to be changed.

Water on bridges

Water pooled in 5-foot bicycle lanes on the bridges shortly after rain and soft snow fell on Wednesday.

Pierce has said that the structures are designed to channel water to each end of each bridge. Water flows through catch basins into a detention vault and then a treatment vault, where it is filtered, she said.

The system ensures that water does not go below the bridges, as it would if drains were installed on the structures.

The Tumwater Creek and Valley Creek bridges on Eighth Street replaced the trestle bridges built in 1936.

The trestle bridges were built to replace the 1913 bridges, which were failing as loads got heavier and the wooden spans could not support them.

The new bridges cost $24.6 million — $21.6 million in state Department of Transportation grants, and $3 million in city funds — to design and build.

Traffic controls were instituted after the bridges were closed — the Tumwater Creek bridge in August 2007, followed by the Valley Creek bridge in September of that year.

The new spans are expected to last for 70 years.

________

Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com