After the Hood Canal Bridge shut down, a tugboat may have fixed it

Following divers’ inspection and a test opening, the Hood Canal floating bridge was declared fit for normal operations Wednesday, in the wake of a drawspan stall that blocked Highway 104 for several hours Monday.

The Washington State Department of Transportation notified the Coast Guard at 10 a.m. Wednesday the bridge could resume opening a full 600-foot-wide ship channel. There appears to be no damage to either the mechanical rollers that help open the bridge, or their electrical components.

WSDOT has not pinpointed an exact cause for the malfunction, and inspectors are still evaluating the bridge, said spokesperson Cara Mitchell.

Traffic between Jefferson and Kitsap counties was blocked for eight hours Monday, after the western part of the two-piece retracting drawspan became stuck. A tugboat pulled that segment back into place that evening. WSDOT was planning to operate a half-sized maritime opening, until state crews concluded that both rolling segments are safe to operate.

“Our working theory is there may have been debris that affected the span that was dislodged when the tugboat pulled on the drawspan Monday night,” said Mitchell.

More than 18,000 motor vehicles cross the bridge on an average day.

Up-close WSDOT video of a drawspan opening can be found here.

Unrelated maintenance closures are still scheduled Thursday at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., for one hour each, while crews perform welding repairs on a road-lane barrier gate. At the western shore, contractors are putting final touches on a roundabout that should reduce high-speed crashes where Highway 104 meets Paradise Bay Road.