Closure of Purdy Bridge for 3 weekends has been canceled due to weather fears

Pierce County has canceled a planned three-weekend closure of the Purdy bridge on State route 302, citing a history of rain in September.

Resurfacing of the two-lane bridge, the main link to the Key Peninsula, will now be postponed until 2021, according to WSDOT.

“Due to the extensive nature of deck repairs and a limited work window if forecast rain causes delays, contractor crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation have decided the most responsible course of action is to reschedule the activities when warm, dry weather conditions are more predictable,” said Christina Werner, a WSDOT spokesperson.

Werner said crews did not want to disassemble the bridge deck one weekend and then find they couldn’t get it back together the next because of inclement weather. Asphalt is difficult to lay in the rain.

“It’s crucial we have bone dry weather for this kind of work,” Werner said.

Long-suffering Key Peninsula commuters will be relieved. The detour would have been a winding, five-mile route on back roads around the top of Henderson Bay.

Travelers on State Route 302 have already been dealing with months of single-lane traffic because of work at Minter Creek, where crews are replacing narrow culverts that restrict salmon runs.

The bridge shutdowns were scheduled for the weekends of Sept. 11-14, Sept. 18-21, and Sept. 25-28. The closures were to begin at 9 p.m. on Fridays and continue through 5 a.m. on Mondays.

Crews were to grind down old asphalt on the bridge and replace it with a new surface. But that kind of work is “extremely weather sensitive” and the department took note of an ominous 30-day weather forecast for September, according to WSDOT.

Details of the weather forecast were not available, but Werner said the contractor, Granite Construction, based their decision on “the last three years of precipitation averages throughout the month of September from reputable weather sources using FAA, NWS and NOAA data.”

The National Weather Service was forecasting little rain in the Seattle-Tacoma area for the next two weeks. The forecast through Thursday only for “as small chance of light showers in the North Cascades.”

But Werner said he third and fourth weekend of September “pose particular concern, because the area often sees increased likelihood of rain, and that is when crews would apply sealant to the new bridge surface. If we remove the driving surface one weekend, and then get rained out the following two weekends, we would be unable to complete this work. Any rain could prevent the work from continuing and potentially require travelers to utilize an extended detour around Henderson Bay throughout the fall and winter months – something neither WSDOT nor travelers want.”

The call was the contractor’s, she said, because they bore the risk.

“If the contractor was confident they could proceed with the deck repairs, they would. But unfortunately we cannot be certain of that right now. The risk would fall on them if they were rained out and would have to pay to have it redone a second or even third time.”

Built in 1937, the Purdy Bridge spans the Burley Lagoon between Purdy and Wauna. It’s the main route between the Key Peninsula and Gig Harbor.

The bridge is 550 feet long, but the roadway is only 20 feet wide. At the time it was built, it was the longest box-girder bridge in the U.S., with a central span of 190 feet. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The print version of The Gateway, which went to press before the cancellation, contains a now-outdated story about the bridge closure.

This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 10:48 AM.