Atkinson Completes Emergency Chamber Way Bridge Replacement

August 26, 2016

Atkinson Completes Emergency Chamber Way Bridge Replacement

Chehalis, WA - WSDOT called upon Atkinson to install an emergency temporary Chamber Way bridge replacement to quickly restore east-west traffic over I-5. An oversized load hit the existing Chamber Way I-5 overpass bridge on Thursday July 21, 2016, and another contractor demolished it the following week. 

WSDOT called upon Atkinson because of our past success on other emergency projects such as I-5 Skagit River Bridge, SR 530 Oso Roadway Reconstruction, and I-90 Bandera Road Bridge Reconstruction, and our ability to perform tough projects quickly. WSDOT's plan was to install a temporary Acrow bridge very similar to the I-5 mainline bridge we installed over the Skagit River in 2013.

Atkinson gathered a project team at the project site on Friday morning to begin planning the work and mobilized our crews, equipment, materials, and subcontractors the same day for a Saturday morning start. By 3:00 pm on Saturday, we had completed the steel bridge assembly and Saturday night, poured the pedestal bearings. 

Due to WSDOT scheduling, we waited to set the bridge until Monday night July 25, 2016. After the bridge was in place, we installed roadway and guardrail connections to the existing bridge, paved the roadway, and opened the bridge to traffic on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 just 5 days after we arrived onsite.