You’ve probably seen the DB General, the huge barge-mounted crane between piers in the Duwamish near the old structure. It was used to remove the bascule leaves from the old bridge a year ago, will returned in August to lift large cranes from a barge up to the top of the bascule piers
Contractors have removed and stored on-site gears in the north motor room, and those on the South Park side are being salvaged. A portion of the red brick road began to be removed on July 27, and bricks are being stockpiled on-site. Did you know? Many of these bricks will be salvaged for reuse in the new bridge project.
In order to protect the river, a sand blanket has been placed over contaminated river silt in the construction area to limit disturbance of the silt. Also, several large steel tanks are being installed on the north side of the project in the Boeing parking lot. These containers will treat water pumped from the Duwamish River. Eventually, these will be installed on both banks of the river and will be connected to a filtering system that will treat the water before it is discharged into the river.
The cofferdam templates (shown in the picture below) will be floated into place soon, and sheet piles will be driven to form the 70-foot square cofferdams in which the two main bridge piers will be built. At the same time, steel crane pads are being erected inside and over each bascule pier of the old bridge. Each of these pads will support a large crane that will help with new bascule pier construction.
King County’s South Park Bridge construction team hosted an information table at the Duwamish River Festival on Saturday, August 27.
To see more information about the project, visit King County’s website at: http://www.kingcounty.gov/transportation/SouthParkBridge.aspx