Crews Move 379-ton, 1925 Steel Warren Truss bridge

August 14, 2015

Crews Move 379-ton, 1925 Steel Warren Truss bridge

Puyallup, Wash. - Atkinson crews closed both directions of SR 167 the weekend of August 8-9, 2015, to relocate the historic Warren Truss Bridge. Built in 1925, the truss bridge was structurally deficient and functionally obsolete and carried load restrictions for vehicles over 10,000 pounds. Crews had originally rolled the truss 60 feet to the east onto temporary piers on July 13, 2014, for use as the northbound roadway detour while the new replacement bridge was built within its original footprint. 

Atkinson completed and opened the new northbound bridge on June 28, 2015, and immediately began preparing the Warren Truss for transport to its temporary storage location. This involved removing the sidewalk overhang and roadway decks and adding steel plate stiffeners to ensure its structural integrity during the move. 

During the August 8th weekend closure of SR 167, Atkinson jacked up the 800,000-pound truss using a system of jacks, rails, and dollies, slid it to the west onto awaiting trailer dollies atop the new northbound bridge, and towed it to the storage site off Meridian Avenue a quarter mile away. The steel truss will remain at that location for up to four years while WSDOT considers other uses of the historic bridge, perhaps for bicycles or pedestrians. If unsuccessful, WSDOT will dismantle and recycle the steel.

Click see a time-lapsed video of the move, click on the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmzmtlwbDA4&feature=youtu.be

“Something of this magnitude is far from routine, we are very happy everything went according to plan.”

Dewayne Matlock, WSDOT Project Engineer

“[The process] went amazing. It was flawless from start to end. We finished 14 hours ahead of schedule.” 

Brian Whitehouse, WSDOT Transportation Engineer