November 14, 2013

$56M paint job done on Lewis and Clark Bridge

Photo courtesy of WSDOT/flickr [enlarge]

WSDOT won't have to worry about painting the Lewis and Clark Bridge for 20 years. Crews are finishing a nine-year project to clean and apply five coats of “Washington Gray” to the 84-year-old structure.

The entire project cost is $56 million.

The bridge carries state Route 433 across the Columbia River between Longview and Rainier, Ore.

The paint job had four phases. The first phase, which applied primer to steel under the deck during a deck replacement project, was completed in 2004.

Two phases that stretched from 2006 to 2010 painted the towers in the river and supporting steel below the driving surface.

The most recent phase, completed by painting contractor Odyssey/Geronimo, was a three-year, $40 million contract to paint the superstructure of latticed steel beams above the roadway.

Crews spent nearly 500 days cleaning and applying 26,500 gallons of paint to the superstructure. They blasted away rust and applied special bridge paint to the bare metal.

“It's definitely been a long haul,” said WSDOT Project Engineer Lori Figone in a release. “The Lewis and Clark Bridge is a large and complex structure, the kind of bridge that takes a lot of time and labor to preserve. But now we're done, and the new paint job should protect the bridge for about 20 years.”

Crews are doing minor touch-ups through the end of the month. WSDOT will apply new lane striping and replace 69 lights on the bridge next year.

Work was funded through state and 2009 stimulus funds. The cost was split between WSDOT and the Oregon Department of Transportation.