Tri-Cities Bridge To Get Fresh Coat Of Paint

The 2,500-foot blue bridge over the Columbia River here is getting a fresh coat of paint this summer, a $1.8 million project that will force road closures and require workers to wear protective clothing.

The bridge’s last paint job was in 1982. It turns out the paint was lead-based.

Instead of hand-painting the steel girders this time around, the workers will wear masks, use precision sprayers to paint and industrial-grade vacuums to capture airborne particles.

When the peeling paint is sandblasted, the contractor, Bridges R Us of Ohio, will hang 600-foot tarpaulins beneath the U.S. 395 span to catch the potentially dangerous lead chips.

Then they’ll dress up in protective gear and collect paint chips from the tarps.

The new paint will keep the re maining bits of lead bonded to the bridge’s surface so they are not a health hazard, he said.