Crews finish striping, prepare for bridge girders
By JEREMIAH O’HAGAN Staff Reporter
Crews continue building pier caps on the new Mark Clark Bridge. PHOTO BY JEREMIAH O In response to readers’ requests, the NEWS will run weekly updates on the General Mark Clark Bridge project on Camano Island and the SR532 corridor project in Stanwood.
Many weekend drivers found themselves sitting still on SR 532 last weekend.
Rest assured – it was for a worthy cause.
Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) crews closed SR 532 down to one lane between Hanstad Road and Smith Road from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day last weekend to stripe.
Long delayed by rain, and now facing even colder weather, crews made the most of a nice weekend, finishing up the last of the lane striping on Camano Island. The remaining work, which includes some crosshatching and removing the old lines, can be completed without closing down the roadway.
Dave Chesson, with WSDOT communications, said crews have done their best over the course of the project to minimize impact on traffic, but the weekend closures were necessary. The striping needed to be completed before it became a safety issue.
“We tried to make sure people didn’t wait longer than 20 minutes,” Chesson said, “but we understand that 20 minutes is still a long time.”
WSDOT is grateful for the patient drivers.
The final step will be rebuilding the Hanstad Road and SR 532 intersection. Beginning this week, the work is scheduled through Dec. 23.
In the interest of improved traffic flow and safety, the finished intersection will prohibit all left-hand turns onto and off of Hanstad Road. A signed detour will be set up during the construction. Some of this work is weather-dependent, so the schedule may change.
On the new General Mark Clark Bridge, crews are forging ahead with the pier caps.
To combat the bitter cold, large plastic tents have been erected over the forms.
These will keep the concrete warm enough to properly cure after it has been poured.
When finished, the pier caps will support the girders for the bridge deck. There will be 17 girders total. The first seven, and the largest at 186 feet long and 224,000 pounds each, will be delivered next week.
The girders will be trucked from Olympia on special trailers with telescoping axles.
Only two of these trucks are available and regulations limit the hours these massive loads are allowed on the highway. These circumstances allow only two girders to be delivered each night of Dec. 21-23. The final girder is scheduled for delivery Monday night, Dec. 28.
The girders will leave Olympia at 9 p.m., arriving in Stanwood about midnight or 1 a.m. After traveling down SR 532 and through town, the trucks will stop on the existing Mark Clark Bridge. At this point, the road will be shut down.
Two cranes will pick the girders from the trucks and maneuver them into place atop the pier caps, spanning
the slough.
Chesson said crews anticipate having to close the bridge to traffic for only 15 minutes per girder.
On the Stanwood side of things, the westbound truckclimbing lane has been finished and open to traffic for over a week. Crews striped and opened the eastbound truck-climbing lane on Saturday.
Traffic delays were kept to about 10 minutes all day, Chesson said.
Lastly, crews began work on the second eastbound truck-climbing lane between Pioneer Highway and 72nd Avenue N.W. This section of SR 532 was closed down to one lane Dec. 3-10 while crews shifted and re-striped the lanes, making room to expand the shoulder and accommodate the wider roadway.
To view photos of the girders, courtesy of WSDOT, visit their Flickr site at www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157622044469081/ .
Visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/Northwest/Snohomish/Construction for specific lane closure information, or www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr532 for general project information.
Staff Reporter Jeremiah O’Hagan: 629-8066 ext. 125 or ohagan@scnews.com.
