EVERETT — A likely year-long detour around the Broadway Bridge project begins in mid-January, adding nearly a mile of driving for northbound vehicles and nearly a half-mile for southbound travelers.
The 102-year-old bridge over BNSF Railway tracks — the hump in Broadway just north of Hewitt Avenue — will be demolished, and a new, wider bridge with no weight restrictions will be built in its place. Last refurbished in 1931, the present bridge carries 40,000 vehicles per day.
Northbound traffic will be detoured east on Hewitt, north on Cedar Street, then west on Everett Avenue to rejoin Broadway. That’s about a mile longer than the 500 feet of Broadway it avoids.
Southbound Broadway traffic will have a shorter detour, turning east on California Avenue, south on Virginia Street and west on Hewitt, back to Broadway. That’s an additional half-mile of driving.
Burlington-based contractor Interwest Construction has been setting up signs and signals for the detour routes.
In mid-January, the bridge will be closed to traffic and be taken down. The city was unable to provide a more specific date.
It will take more than a year to build a new bridge with wider lanes and no weight restrictions, to open in January or February 2016.
The city has installed several Web cameras around the bridge area so people can monitor traffic conditions.
To view the cameras online, go to everettwa.org/default.aspx?ID=2080.
There are two existing cameras on Broadway that are part of the traffic signal system. A third camera near Cedar and Hewitt will be used to keep an eye on traffic on the detour route, said City Engineer Ryan Sass.
An additional camera, pointed at the bridge, will enable viewers to monitor construction.
The aging bridge spans the main line of the BNSF Railway, just east of the rail tunnel under the city.
In June, the city imposed an 11-ton weight limit on all vehicles as a precaution. The shoulder has long been closed to street parking.
The bridge is owned by the railroad, but when the new span is completed, ownership will be transferred to the city. This is typical for projects involving federal funding, Sass said.
The federal government is the source of about $7.6 million of the project’s $13.6 million price tag. BNSF contributed $824,000.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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