PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – The work performed during an emergency closure on the Lewis and Clark Bridge overnight Wednesday was a temporary fix as the bridge awaits a more extensive repair project scheduled for the summer of 2023, the Washington State Department of Transportation said.
WSDOT announced Wednesday evening that starting at 6 p.m., the Lewis and Clark Bridge, which spans the Columbia River and connects Longview, Wash. to Rainier, Ore., would be closed to all vehicles for emergency repairs.
State officials said maintenance crews had discovered a fractured floor beam that needed immediate repair. The bridge re-opened at 6 a.m. Thursday.
In the fall of 2022, a concerned community member was sounding the alarm about the bridge after noticing that beams on the bridge had been warping.
At the time, WSDOT told KOIN 6 News that this flexing had been happening in the past few years and inspectors determined it was a result of failing finger expansion joints.
Now, the state’s transportation department said these joints were also likely to blame for the overnight emergency closure. The fractured floor beam was located near one of the expansion joints that needs to be replaced.
WSDOT said damage is occurring on the bridge due to additional stress in other locations on the bridge caused by a lack of proper expansion and contraction in the joints.
“The joints, when functioning properly allow the bridge to expand and contract without resistance. When the joints are unable to move as designed, expansion and contraction of the bridge pushes on the towers and the bracing members flex,” WSDOT spokesperson Kelly Hanahan told KOIN 6 News in October 2022.
The fractured floor beam was discovered while WSDOT maintenance crews were completing preliminary work ahead of a summer finger joint replacement project. WSDOT has been warning the public that the bridge will need to be shut down for six days over the summer during the construction project.
“The work performed last night was a temporary fix to ensure the bridge remains safe for traffic until the expansion joint project is completed,” Hanahan said Thursday.
The department does not yet know if the summer’s finger joint replacement project will need to expand to address the newly discovered floor beam damage.
Hanahan said the work done overnight has stabilized the floor beam so the bridge can be used safely.
However, WSDOT has some additional “non-urgent” repairs to perform and they’re bringing in a contractor to perform an evaluation for the finger joint work that still needs to be done. Because of this, there will be single-lane closures on the bridge beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday and lanes of traffic will be alternated across the bridge.
On Thursday, Hanahan repeated that the bent beams are also a result of stress caused by finger joints not expanding properly. She said the bending of the beams will be relieved when the joints are replaced and the structure can move freely again.
“The bridge was built to move a great deal, and a critical part of healthy movement is healthy expansion joints,” she said.
WSDOT has not yet set dates for when the six-day construction closure will occur during the summer of 2023.
The Cowlitz Wahkiakum Council of Governments, a joint governmental agency composed of local governments in Cowlitz and Wahkiakum Counties and the city of Rainier, has said it would like to take a closer look at the safety of the Lewis and Clark Bridge and the possibility of replacing it.
The group planned to submit applications to possible funding sources that would help pay for the study in early 2023. As of Wednesday, Bill Fashing, executive director of CWCOG, said the group has not received any new funds. In the meantime, he said they are reviewing past work to help determine their next steps.
Sen. Jeff Wilson, a Republican who represents Wahkiakum County and part of Cowlitz County, said WSDOT has also told him that the bent beams were a result of the finger joints needing to be replaced. He was assured the bridge is safe to drive on, but said he planned to question WSDOT about the latest emergency closure and any additional work that may need to be done to the bridge.
The Oregon Department of Transportation, which operates the Interstate Bridge between Vancouver and Portland, said it’s difficult to say if it would close the bridge fully if a similar issue was discovered on the Interstate Bridge.
Spokesperson Don Hamilton said it would depend on the situation and that the Lewis and Clark Bridge are different bridges with different parts. However, if a similarly serious issue was discovered, the bridge could be closed or ODOT could choose to close one platform at a time during repairs.
The Columbia River Lewis and Clark Bridge was constructed in 1929 and received rehabilitation in 2003, WSDOT said. It is inspected every two years and the last inspection was conducted in February of 2022. WSDOT crews spent 100 hours examining it. The bridge also receives underwater inspection every five years.