The Agate Pass Bridge will be closed to one lane of traffic next month so maintenance crews from the Washington State Department of Transportation can clean the bridge.
According to the Department of Transportation, crews will begin their annual cleaning, inspection and maintenance work on the bridge on Monday, Feb. 13.
The work will continue each day between 8:45 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13 through Thursday, Feb. 16.
Crews will return to the bridge again and follow the same work schedule Tuesday, Feb. 21 through Friday, Feb. 24.
Under the announced schedule, no work will be conducted on weekends or on Presidents’ Day, Feb. 20.
The two-lane bridge will be closed to a single lane, and traffic will be guided through the work zone on an alternating basis.
Flaggers will control traffic at the ends of the Agate Pass Bridge, and police will be used for traffic control at the Highway 305/Suquamish Way intersection.
The Department of Transportation also said that pedestrians will be escorted across the bridge during work hours.
Drivers on the highway are being advised to expect delays up to 30 minutes.
Officials said workers on the bridge will also monitor the arrival of ferries at the Bainbridge terminal to minimize delays.
Transportation officials said the Agate Pass Bridge, which connects Bainbridge Island to the Kitsap Peninsula, is used daily by 22,000 vehicles. Approximately 9,200 vehicles cross the bridge during the hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The bridge, built in 1950, was last cleaned in February 2016. That work stretched for 11 days
State transportation officials, in an earlier agreement with the state Department of Ecology, decided to clean the bridge on an annual basis.
The yearly cleaning allows bridge crews to flush wash the bridge after most of the debris has been removed by maintenance crews. Previous water tests by Ecology upstream and downstream of the bridge have discovered only minimal changes to water quality, officials said, and those results have been “well below” environmental thresholds.
In years past, the 1970 Clean Water Act required the state to fully encase the bridge before cleaning began, officials noted, and the cost of that work prevented the state from cleaning the bridge for two decades.
When work begins in February, crews will not be cleaning the bridge over the Presidents’ Day weekend, due to the high traffic volumes typically seen during the holiday.
Officials said the work can’t be done at night due to safety reasons, and the project is also planned for February to help avoid the nesting season for Peregrine falcons, a protected species.
After debris on the bridge is hand-removed and the span is washed with low-pressure sprays, state transportation engineers will inspect the structure to see if any repairs are needed.
Officials said the inspection will be in-depth, and includes examining the bridge deck, expansion joints, rivets and other areas of the span.
