It's done. Testing work that's been closing the Hood Canal Bridge to vehicles almost daily and/or nightly since last May is completed.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) announced at 10 a.m. on Sunday, March 21 that state workers and contractor Kiewit-General successfully completed the final draw span tests.

“A handful of minor work items remain,” said Kevin Dayton, WSDOT region administrator, “but for drivers who rely on the bridge daily, the project as they have known it for the past several months is pretty much over.”

Work has taken place nightly since March 8 toward the final push of completing 20 consecutive error-free opening/closing cycles to pass full inspection. Each of these cycles requires about 35 minutes.

When nightly testing began, Jeff Cook, bridge project manager for WSDOT, told the Leader the nightly work signaled the last 10 days or so of work.

On March 17, WSDOT spokesman Joe Irwin said the completion was now expected "early next week," meaning this week. That estimate may have been the first in the west-half retrofit that came early  – the work was done on Sunday, March 21.

"A few of the 1,400 items on the functional testing punch list, like failsafe systems, took a little longer than originally anticipated and pushed back our end date a few days," Irwin said on March 17.

Punch list work is expected to continue for about two weeks, after which the $500 million SR 104 Hood Canal Bridge Retrofit and Replacement Project will officially be complete, the WSDOT reported.

Nightly closures

Typically there have been two to four bridge closures to vehicles for testing between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. Last week the pace accelerated, with three consecutive nights of seven test closures (last Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) and five closures overnight Saturday, March 20. Motorists had been advised to expect a testing delay of as long as 90 minutes – only four of the last 26 test closures were close to that long.

But the traveling public, so patient when the 1.5-mile floating bridge was closed last May, is ready for some semblance of normal operation – as normal as a floating bridge can provide. (On March 16, the bridge was closed nearly 90 minutes when sustained winds of 40 mph, gusts of 50 mph, and waves hitting the roadway made it difficult for trucks and motorcyclists.)

It has seemed there is more traffic on SR 104 in early evening – perhaps people are lacking patience to potentially wait at the bridge after 10 p.m.

"Well, I will tell you that lately I have been anything but positive about continually getting caught on my way home from work," Louise Cole of Jefferson County posted on a bridge story on ptleader.com. "I got caught five nights this last week; plus one day going into work, making me late for work."

Primary route

The floating bridge is the primary connection between the Olympic Peninsula and the Interstate 5 transportation corridor: 16,000 to 20,000 vehicles a day, including 1,900 trucks, pass over it. It feeds the Edmonds-Kingston ferry route, the state's busiest.

The floating bridge opened in 1961. The west half (Jefferson County side) sank in 1979 after a big storm. It was replaced and reopened in 1982.

Deteriorating concrete and rusting rebar on the oldest half spurred the WSDOT to begin the modernization process. Contractors have been on and around the bridge for more than five years, working on a variety of projects in advance of the east-half replacement.

New approaches were added, the west-half roadway was widened in 2006, and plenty of work was done on and in the floating pontoons.

It all led to the replacement work that closed the bridge entirely from May 1 to June 3, 2009. New, wider trusses were included, and the "jog" was removed with the old east-half draw span.

The refurbished bridge is wider and considered safer and better for bicyclists, in particular – although all people on two wheels must be careful on the bridge's steel grates.

The span still opens and closes at the same speed for marine traffic.

Retrofitting

When it reopened last June, the WSDOT announced that retrofitting the west half would take through December 2009 and traffic delays would be needed. Retrofitting meant replacing hydraulic, mechanical and electrical systems to match those on the new pontoons.

Last July, there was a big mechanical problem with the draw span. In October, grinders were used to smooth the new east-half roadway surface.

Ballasting work brought daily and nightly closures to follow Hood Canal's slack tide. In December 2009, the WSDOT reported "complications" when ballasting – adding and readjusting weight inside – the 496-foot-long, 60-foot-wide, 20-foot-tall west-half draw span pontoon.

The project wrap-up date was extended into late January 2010, and now it's late March.

Schedule changes

The job to close and reopen the bridge last May/June was finished ahead of schedule, for which contractors were rewarded. The job to retrofit the west half is also technically being completed ahead of schedule. The state's bridge contract with Kiewit-General is for December 2010 completion, said Jeff Cook, WSDOT's bridge project manager.

Although the ballasting and retrofitting work has taken longer than expected, Cook said the number of necessary traffic delays is the same.

"By my math, it's about the same number of openings we originally anticipated, but it's spread out over a longer period of time," Cook told the Leader.

(The Hood Canal Bridge "is done" announcement appeared Sunday on ptleader.com and Port Townsend Leader on Facebook.)