Traffic whizzes by on both sides of Interstate 5 as demolition work continues on the Blakeslee Junction Bridge on Tuesday afternoon in Centralia.
A backhoe with a industrial magnet moves piles of rebar from the partially demolished Interstate 5 Blakeslee Junction Bridge on Tuesday afternoon in Centralia.
A backhoe with a industrial magnet moves piles of rebar from the partially demolished Interstate 5 Blakeslee Junction Bridge on Tuesday afternoon in Centralia.
Northbound traffic whizzes by on Interstate 5 as demolition work continues on the Blakeslee Junction Bridge in May 2014. The placement of new girders is expected to cause delays on Reynolds Avenue.
Crews demolishing the old southbound Interstate 5 bridge over Reynolds Avenue in Centralia are ready to start demolition work on the adjacent, 60-year-old northbound bridge.
Northbound I-5 traffic will be shifted from 9 p.m. tonight to 5 a.m. Friday morning onto the new southbound bridge, allowing crews to finish demolition work and build a new northbound bridge.
The northbound I-5 onramp from Harrison Avenue will be closed, along with Reynolds Avenue under the bridge, during the nighttime traffic shift.
Closing the on-ramp helps facilitate the I-5 traffic shift, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
WSDOT spokeswoman Abbi Russell said traffic will not be stopped, but signs will be posted to slow traffic down to 50 mph over the bridge. The speed limit will remain at 50 mph in both directions for the next year while crews finish the new northbound bridge.
“What will be different is they will be traveling next to southbound traffic on the same structure with a median in between,” Russell said.
The new southbound bridge over Reynolds Avenue, completed last fall, is 58 feet wide, and has enough room to accommodate four 11-foot traffic lanes, median barrier and narrow shoulders.
“We built the new southbound structure knowing we’d have to put all lanes of I-5 on it during the final phase of construction,” WSDOT Project Engineer Colin Newell said in a news release. “There’s plenty of room, which is good, because everyone will share that bridge for more than a year while we build the new northbound bridge.”
Scarsella Bros. Inc. — contractor for the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Mellen Street to Blakeslee Junction I-5 widening project — is scheduled to start demolishing the old northbound I-5 bridge next week, which WSDOT said will cause more closures to Reynolds Avenue. Crews plan to demolish both southbound and northbound bridges within the month.
Crews demolish the structures by using excavating equipment to crush portions of the bridge.
Scheduled Reynolds Avenue closures are as follows:
• 6 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday;
• 6 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday;
• 6 p.m. Monday to 5 a.m. Tuesday;
• 6 p.m. Tuesday to 5 a.m. Wednesday;
• 6 p.m. Wednesday to 5 a.m. Thursday, May 22;
• 6 p.m. Thursday, May 22, to 5 a.m. Friday, May 23.
WSDOT is working around railroad companies and local school bus schedules to create its construction schedule.
“We still impact people, but we find that (nighttime closures) keep impacts to a minimum,” Russell said.
The entire I-5, Mellen Street to Blakeslee Junction project is scheduled to be complete in late 2015.
The project will construct new collector-distributor lanes, a couplet system at Mellen Street, safety improvements north of Blakeslee Junction, congestion relief at the Mellen Street and Harrison Avenue interchanges and a new local travel option via the Louisiana Avenue-Airport Road connection, according to WSDOT.
