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‘Quite an engineering feat’: Million-pound bridge in Everett

Published 11:30 am Monday, September 23, 2019

By Lizz Giordano

Work continues Monday in Everett on the Grand Avenue Bridge in preparation for the move later this week. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
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Work continues Monday in Everett on the Grand Avenue Bridge in preparation for the move later this week. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

Work continues Monday in Everett on the Grand Avenue Bridge in preparation for the move later this week. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
Work continues Monday in Everett on the Grand Avenue Bridge in preparation for the move later this week. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
Crew prepare to lift the Grand Avenue Park Bridge midday Saturday. (Lizz Giordano / The Herald)
Cribbing is assembled over the weekend, which will be used to support the Grand Avenue Park Bridge when it rotates. (Lizz Giordano / The Herald)
A small crowd gathered at Grand Avenue Park to watch crews install the steel bridge. (Lizz Giordano / The Herald)
The Grand Avenue Park Bridge was lifted late Sunday night. It will tower over West Marine View Drive for several days before it is rotated into place. (Lizz Giordano / The Herald)
Work continues Monday in Everett on the Grand Avenue Bridge in preparation for the move later this week. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
Work continues Monday in Everett on the Grand Avenue Bridge in preparation for the move later this week. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

EVERETT — The million-pound Grand Avenue Park Bridge now towers over West Marine View Drive after it was lifted late Sunday night.

It will remain in the middle of the road until Wednesday, when crews are scheduled to swing the steel structure around and attach it. That date is dependent on several factors, including final authorization to close the train tracks from BNSF Railway.

When complete, the pedestrian and utility bridge, which is nearly a football field in length, will link Grand Avenue Park with the Port of Everett.

Small crowds gathered over the weekend and Monday morning at the park as crews below assembled steel cribbing and placed it underneath the bridge.

“It’s quite an engineering feat,” said Ken Yohe, who has made the trek from Brier three times to monitor the project’s progress. The Navy veteran created a Facebook page to post videos and pictures he’s taken of the bridge.

Usually bridges are built little by little from each side, said Wayne Lively, an Everett resident and retired Machinist.

“But to put it up in one shot, you don’t see that very often,” he said.

Lively said he’s visited the site every day since crews started assembling the steel truss on the side of Marine View Drive earlier this year.

The installation of the bridge stayed mostly on schedule this month. It was anticipated to be lifted on Saturday, according to Kathleen Baxter, a spokesperson for Everett’s Public Works Department, but that work was pushed back a day.

By early Sunday evening the bridge had not yet moved. Assembling the cribbing structure, which will support the bridge as it pivots into place, was taking longer than anticipated, Baxter said.

Lifting began a little before 8 p.m. Sunday.

On Monday and Tuesday, Baxter said, workers plan to raise the bridge to its final height, lash the structure to the transporters and remove the south towers.

The installation phase of the project is still on time to finish Thursday, with Marine View opening the next day, Baxter said.

The bridge is scheduled to open to pedestrians in 2020, after crews lay the deck and finish connecting the utility lines.

Lizz Giordano: 425-374-4165; egiordano@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @lizzgior.

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