Transportation officials
hope the Narrows Bridge will
be back to full capacity by
about noon today.
By Ed Fredrich
Sun Staff
Traffic was disrupted all over the Puget Sound region Friday after the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was damaged by a freak accident and traffic was reduced to one lane each way.
Five holes were punched in the concrete bridge deck when a 42,000-pound submarine component fell off a flatbed truck-trailer Friday morning and crashed into the roadway on the eastbound bridge lanes.
State Department of Transportation officials were forced to close the bridge entirely for about 30 minutes while two cranes lifted the huge part and transported it off the bridge.
Damage to the roadway forced the closure of both eastbound lanes for the rest of the day. Department of Transportation crews set forms and poured the lightweight concrete used on the bridge. The patches are expected to be cured in time for the lanes to be open by about noon today.
The congestion on the bridge forced thousands of motorists to seek alternative routes. Many chose to cross the Sound on ferries and lengthy backups at ferry terminals were common as the day wound toward rush hour. Other motorists stuck it out, waiting hours inching along in line to cross the bridge.
The trouble all started about 9:40 a.m. Friday when a Murrey's Disposal Co. truck transporting a scrapped condenser from Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to Lee’s Reuse in Tacoma drove onto the bridge.
The condenser, which desalinates water for shipboard use, was from a submarine being cut up for scrap at PSNS.
The truck, a 1978 International driven by Dale F. Hiam, 44, of Carbonado, evidently strayed slightly to the right about midspan. The oversize load snagged a bridge pillar and was pulled right off the truck’s lowboy trailer, according to Don Hawkins, Murrey's vice president.
The condenser, about 10 feet wide and the length of a minivan, landed in the right lane, punching a 4-foot hole in the concrete roadway. It then bounced into the left lane and knocked out four smaller chunks.
All that remained where the concrete broke away were steel reinforcement bars, known as rebar.
No one was injured, and no vehicles were damaged when the accident occurred.
"The most important thing we always ask is if there are any injuries," Hawkins said. "After that, things can always be fixed."
"It kind of bounced around the bridge deck," said DOT public affairs manager Ann Briggs.
"It’s really a wonder that no one was hurt."
The bridge was closed completely from about 11:20 to 11:45 a.m. as a pair of cranes hoisted the condenser back onto its trailer.
The truck was driven to the Tacoma side of the bridge where Hawkins said it had to remain because it lost its "wide load" and "oversize" placards.
When the bridge reopened, traffic was restricted to one lane in each direction.
By 2:30 p.m., eastbound traffic was backed up to the Purdy Women’s Treatment Center, and westbound traffic was backed up to Tacoma’s 12th Street.
As the commute hours began, however, it was taking nearly two hours to get across from Tacoma, and the eastbound backup reached to the exit at the town of Purdy.
By 8:30 p.m., backups had shrunk slightly to about the length they were earlier in the afternoon.
Briggs recommended that motorists avoid using the bridge until the damage is repaired.
"If people can avoid it, it would probably be the best thing to do," Briggs said.
Reach reporter Ed Fredrich at (360) 415-2679 or at
