Bridge piece takes jaunt

A piece of the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge, stranded off Interstate 90 near Spokane because it was too heavy, was moved 10 miles closer to its destination on Monday.

The Texas company hired to move the 100-ton expansion joint from Minnesota to Tacoma received approval to move it from the Spokane Port of Entry on I-90 to a staging area about 10 miles west, Washington State Patrol spokesman Officer Nicholas Hopper said.

The 73-foot-long steel and neoprene expansion joint sits on a 165-foot-long tractor-trailer rig. It was stopped for being overweight March 24 at the state line weigh station near Spokane on its way to the bridge linking Tacoma and Gig Harbor.

Hopper said the movers hauled the bridge piece to a site near the Pines exit on I-90, where its trailer can be reconfigured so it won’t damage freeway bridges. Once that happens, the hauler will need another permit to get the load the rest of the way, Hopper said.

Department of Transportation spokeswoman Claudia Cornish said the trailer could be reconfigured – made longer or wider to distribute weight – and on its way as early as late Wednesday.

“He’ll have to go through the weighing process again. If he meets the criteria, he expects to begin moving either late Wednesday, or early Thursday,” she said. “There are a lot of ‘ifs’ in there.”

Mike Love, owner of Big Boat Movers, the Zavalla, Texas, company hired to haul the bridge section from Minnesota, did not immediately return calls for comment Monday.

Accompanied by three pilot cars and a WSP escort, the tractor-trailer made its way through noon traffic at about 30 mph to a Transportation Department maintenance yard.

This expansion joint and a second one, both made in Minnesota for the new span along State Route 16, are designed to allow the deck of the 1,500-foot-long suspension bridge to move during an earthquake and expand with temperature. The second expansion joint was parked in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Regulators in other states were satisfied with the custom-built trailer used by Big Boat Movers. The company added axles to bring the total to 21 on the 149-foot trailer to try to meet Washington state’s more stringent load distribution limits, but state troopers at the weigh station said it wasn’t enough.

When the truck arrived at the port of entry, it was heavier than allowed on the state’s oversized load permit, Cornish said. The problem is not the joint’s size or weight, but the way the load is distributed on the truck.

“Our biggest concern is to prevent damage to bridges. Washington has thousands of bridges,” Cornish said. “It’s up to the hauler to propose a new configuration.”