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Crews pour concrete for I-205 interchange onramp bridge

560-foot structure will connect freeway with Northeast 18th Street; work that starts Monday will spur overnight closures that could last 10 weeks

The Columbian
Published: January 7, 2016, 7:15pm
3 Photos
Workers, above and top, put down fresh concrete Thursday that&#039;s part of a new Interstate 205 onramp at Northeast 18th Street in Vancouver. The interchange project could cause some traffic congestion and single-lane closures for weeks starting Monday.
Workers, above and top, put down fresh concrete Thursday that's part of a new Interstate 205 onramp at Northeast 18th Street in Vancouver. The interchange project could cause some traffic congestion and single-lane closures for weeks starting Monday. (Photos by Natalie Behring/The Columbian) Photo Gallery

Construction crews made some big progress Thursday in the effort to improve traffic on Interstate 205, but upcoming work is going to mean some likely congestion around Clark County’s busiest interchange.

On Thursday, crews from Cascade Bridge LLC finished the first of five concrete pours on the 560-foot onramp bridge from Northeast 18th Street onto southbound I-205. The bridge surface requires 500 yards of concrete and two weeks of drying time before the side barriers can be built and other finishing touches are made. The Washington State Department of Transportation planned to get started much earlier, but last week’s cold and wet weather delayed the pour.

“This is a big milestone for us,” said Brad Clark, a design construction engineer with WSDOT. “We can build a wall any time; it’s not every day we get to build a 560-foot-long bridge.”

The bridge girders were set in September. On Thursday morning, trucks lined the shoulder of the freeway and dumped their loads of wet concrete into a large pump truck. The pump truck then forced the concrete up through its boom arm and onto the deck below. Laborers directed the mixture across a thick grid of steel bars while a large machine rolled behind them and smoothed the surface.

Clark said the bridge alone cost between $5 million and $6 million to construct. Because it’s so long, the concrete deck will be poured in five segments, starting at opposite ends. Later, a machine will cut grooves across the surface to give drivers better traction.

WSDOT hopes that the long ramp will mean fewer collisions by giving drivers more time merging into traffic before the next exit.

Starting next week, work in the area could cause some congestion for drivers going through the project area. Beginning Monday and lasting through the next 10 weeks, drivers in both directions of the freeway between state Highway 500 and Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard will see intermittent single-lane closures from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. and double-lane closures from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The bridge work is just one piece of a two-phase, $40.6 million project that will connect I-205 and 18th Street with a “half diamond” interchange with ramps to the south of 18th Street. Drivers heading north on I-205 will be able to exit straight onto 18th Street; an onramp will take vehicles off 18th Street and onto southbound I-205.

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