New 520 bridge expected to span Lake Washington by end of 2015
Feb 17, 2015, 10:33 AM | Updated: 11:28 am
Crews lift a portion of the new 520 floating bridge into place Monday. (KIRO Radio/Chris Sullivan)
(KIRO Radio/Chris Sullivan)
As you whiz by all the construction on the new 520 bridge, you can really only see a small window into what will become the world’s longest floating bridge.
It is a sea of activity, both above the bridge and below, and the makeshift islands of pontoons and floating barges extends far beyond what you can see from the old bridge.
Related: Boat traffic rerouted with new 520 bridge span
The state moved two pontoons into place Tuesday, extending the new bridge more than 700 feet to the west. By doing that, the pontoons have blocked the drawspan of the current bridge, which means no more openings for boats.
Project manager Dave Becher said the project is scheduled to span Lake Washington by later this year.
“We have three pontoons that are left, that are being constructed in Aberdeen,” he said. “We expect those to be floated out of the facility in March and hopefully get up here as soon as possible.”
But as those pontoons are maneuvered into place, workers continue to move giant sections of bridge deck onto those already connected.
“We have 776 of these panels that we are installing on what we call the low-rise portion of the bridge,” Becher said. “They’re about 54 feet wide across the deck. They weight about 100 tons each.”
But of course, lost in all of this construction is the reality that the west end of the bridge, the section from the University of Washington to I-5, has no funding. So when the new 520 bridge reopens, the six new lanes will simply connect into the old four lane bridge over Portage Bay.
