January 21, 2021

Huge girder installed at I-5 project in Tacoma

Photo from WSDOT/flickr [enlarge]

The 223-foot-long girder was set at night using two cranes.

Concrete Technology Corp. has one-upped itself. Last summer, crews from Atkinson Construction placed 10 girders made by the Tacoma company that are 220 feet long and 115.5 tons — among the longest in the country. That mark was eclipsed earlier this month, when Atkinson installed a Concrete Tech girder that is 223 feet, 4.5 inches long and weighs over 123 tons.

A Concrete Tech spokesman told the DJC last summer that the 223-foot girder is the longest in North America. For comparison, the massive concrete I-beam is about the same length as the wingspan of a Boeing 747-8 jet.

The record girder is part of the new southbound Interstate 5 bridge over the Puyallup River in Tacoma. Engineers decided to use 22 girders that are over 200 feet long to span railroad tracks, the river and southbound state Route 167. A Washington State Department of Transportation spokeswoman said the railroad tracks run at an angle to the bridge, with no room for bridge piers.

The bridge is being built with 84 girders and could open by year end. Atkinson set 54 girders about a year ago and has installed the remaining 30 this month, with the final two expected to be set last night.

Next, Atkinson will work on the bridge deck and build a new East L Street overpass as part of the $325 million project. After the bridge opens for traffic, crews will remove the old southbound I-5 bridge over the river. Sections of the old northbound I-5 bridge were previously removed to make way for the new southbound bridge.

Jacobs is the project designer.

A video of the girder being installed can be viewed below.

The new southbound I-5 Puyallup River Bridge is part of the final project that will connect HOV lanes to I-5 and SR 16 in Tacoma.

Those 10 girders that Atkinson placed over the summer are part of a separate project that the contractor is working on in the area, which is part of the $2 billion Puget Sound Gateway Program that will extend state Route 509 in King County and SR 167 in Pierce County. Those girders formed a bridge over I-5 in Fife. Atkinson has a $40.9 million design-build contract that's part of the program's SR 167 completion project.