Broadway Bridge in Everett mostly torn down

EVERETT — The 102-year-old Broadway Bridge was mostly taken down in a week.

Work crews Wednesday began removing the deck of the aging span over the BNSF Railway main line.

The bridge, between California Street and Hewitt Avenue, used to carry 40,000 vehicles per day, but had been falling into disrepair and since June 2014 had been operating under weight restrictions.

Demolition of the portion of the bridge over the tracks was expected to wrap up over the weekend, depending on train traffic.

Ryan Sass, Everett’s city engineer, said work crews are sometimes able to secure a six-hour window from BNSF to work on the bridge. At other times, a flagger is in contact with the railroad dispatchers and has to clear the work area if a train is coming through.

There are still parts of the bridge that are not over the track that need to be removed. After that, crews can start drilling the supports for the new bridge, Sass said.

The $13.6 million replacement project will take up to a year to complete. Traffic is being detoured onto side streets east of Broadway during the process.

So far, the detour route hasn’t posed problems for drivers.

“As expected, a fair amount of traffic has gone elsewhere,” Sass said.

“We expect some of that will start to come back as people find there is no congestion,” he said.

Northbound traffic is being directed around the work area on Hewitt Avenue, Cedar Street and Everett Avenue. Southbound traffic turns east on California Street, then south on Virginia Avenue, then west on Hewitt.

Traffic cameras around the work site and detour route have been installed, which people can view on the city’s website: everettwa.org/default.aspx?ID=2080.

Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.