SHINE — A section of the 42-year-old Hood Canal Bridge is getting ready to roll.
Think of it as a 640-foot, 3,800-ton skateboard.
By the time the state Department of Transportation closes the bridge for three full days at 8 p.m. Thursday, bridge engineers hope they are ready to roll the east end of the current bridge off its piers.
After the bridge closes, Poulsbo-based Kiewit-General Construction Co. workers will disconnect the structure’s power lines connecting it to land, jack the bridge up and pull it on rollers in a massive engineering feat.
Engineers plan to use an hydraulics system to roll out the first 640 feet of the bridge on the Kitsap County side and then roll in the new portion.
The work is scheduled to be complete by 4 a.m. Monday to reopen the bridge to traffic.
Jefferson County side next
Another 190 feet of the bridge on the Jefferson County side is scheduled for replacement and retrofit work beginning at 8 p.m. Aug. 21.
That’s the reason why Department of Transportation officials are closing the bridge down for two three-day periods.
“I know it’s painful to shut down for three days at a time,” Project Manager Steve Fisher said during a media tour that state officials conducted Tuesday.
“But the alternative is to shut down the bridge for a year for a more traditional type of construction.”
The plan is to replace the bridge’s two steel approach spans with new wider concrete approaches.
Steel rollers the size of an average desk will maneuver the old steel bridge platform to the side.
