Pierce County bridge closed for safety concerns. It’ll reopen after $829k in repairs
Several weeks after the Interlaaken Bridge over Lake Steilacoom closed indefinitely to car and pedestrian traffic, Lakewood officials said they expect it to reopen in September following $829,000 in repairs.
The bridge connects Lake Steilacoom Drive Southwest to Mt. Tacoma Drive Southwest toward Lakewood Town Center through Interlaaken Drive Southwest. It typically saw 5,000 people cross it every day.
It was built in the early 1920s and was retrofitted in the 1950s, city spokesperson Brynn Grimley told The News Tribune last month. Lakewood has done regular maintenance on the bridge, including beam and cap replacements over the years, most recently in 2012, she said.
Every two years the bridge is inspected by Pierce County, and an underwater assessment is performed every five years by the Washington State Department of Transportation dive team, according to a city memo.
Lakewood’s plan to address decay
The bridge is held up by four timber piles that extend into the lake bed. A report in September 2023 found structural deficiencies in some of the bridge’s pile caps, which sustain the full weight of the structure. Those pile caps were last replaced by Pierce County in 1983 and have decayed over the years, according to the city.
Upon receiving that report in September, the city followed recommendations to lower the load limit on the bridge to six tons and hired a structural engineer specializing in timber-bridge assessments to examine potential repairs, the city memo said.
On May 14 a city structural consultant found “significant decay” in one of the pile caps during an initial inspection, and a decision was made to restrict the bridge to one lane and center traffic, the memo said. A later conference with Pierce County recommended “the structure in its current state could not remain open” to any type of traffic, and the bridge was closed May 17.
A $829,000 repair option was approved at the council meeting Monday. That includes $770,000 for contract labor and equipment, $37,000 in material procurement, $12,000 in traffic control and closure rentals, and $10,000 in permits and design/advertising, according to the council agenda packet.
A contractor likely would use a floating barge and a few work boats to get crew and materials to the barge daily, as well as cranes, said Troy Pokswinski, the Capital Projects Division manager, at the Monday meeting.
Construction is expected to last about two months, he said.
“They will probably need to buoy off segments around the work zone, as well as potentially take a portion of the boat launch out there off Lake Steilacoom [and] Edgewater Park for temporary access here and there,” Pokswinski said.
Why not just replace the bridge?
It’s not in the city’s best interest to replace the bridge because the structure overall is “pretty healthy,” Pokswinski said Monday in response to a council member question.
Replacing the entire bridge would require Lakewood purchasing enough right-of-way property from lakefront houses on either side to accommodate car, bike and pedestrian traffic, which would be “very cost prohibitive,” he said.
“Typically you’re looking at 20 years out to start planning something of this nature,” Pokswinski said. “This [would be] a substantial task to try and replace this bridge.”
