Truck crash shuts down Hood Canal Bridge

When it comes to backups at the Hood Canal Bridge, ain’t practically nothing like the real thing.

A Coca-Cola semi-trailer truck jackknifed on the Freeway 104 span just after 3 p.m. Friday, shutting down the bridge in the two instructions for much more than 7 several hours.

Lengthy traces of drivers shaped on both of those sides of the Hood Canal. An early estimate of a reopening at 6 p.m. Feb. 3 was swiftly replaced by warnings from the Washington Department of Transportation that the bridge was shut “until more observe.”

The shutdown brought about ripple consequences through the area.

Ian Sterling of Washington Condition Ferries stated a range of ferry crew associates on both of those sides of the water couldn’t report to do the job owing to the closure.

Ferry assistance was shut down involving Port Townsend and Whidbey Island. The 8:30 p.m. sailing Friday from Port Townsend and the 9:10 p.m. departure from Coupeville were being identified as off.

In addition to the Port Townsend-Coupeville ferry run, cancellations ended up also manufactured on the Edmonds-Kingston route during the bridge closure.

That still left just a person way off of the Olympic Peninsula Friday: US Freeway 101 south.

The semi-trailer truck that crashed on the Hood Canal Bridge struck the concrete barrier on just one aspect of the span. 

According to the Department of Transportation, a segment of the barrier was displaced alongside with the guardrail, and there was also some injury to the bridge deck alone towards the edge wherever the barrier sits.

Mark Krulish, a Department of Transportation spokesman, claimed there was no sign that any parts of the bridge had been knocked into Hood Canal.

“We had concerns about a gasoline spill as the truck’s gasoline tank experienced been punctured, but our crews have been able to merely pump the gasoline out before it was towed,” Krulish stated in an electronic mail to The Leader.

The region was buffeted by substantial winds Friday, which might have been a component in the crash, in accordance to Trooper Katherine Weatherwax of the Washington Condition Patrol.

Weatherwax reported the wreck was even now less than investigation.

No accidents were being documented.

The backup on both sides stretched for miles, and quite a few drivers just gave up and turned about on the highway as an alternative of ready for the bridge to reopen.

Inevitably, two vans with state transportation crews from Shelton arrived at the bridge all around 8 p.m. Friday 1 loaded with an excavator, an additional with items of substitution concrete limitations. 

Upkeep crews put a short-term barrier and the Division of Transportation’s Bridge Preservation Business office arrived to examine the destruction. At the time the barrier was in place, workers at the Hood Canal Bridge done a take a look at opening to make absolutely sure that the bridge would open its complete size for maritime targeted visitors. 

The span reopened at about 10:30 p.m. Friday.

The bridge was scheduled to be shut down to just one lane Tuesday for four several hours to take out a portion of barrier wall that was weakened in the crash.