This spring, contractors will continue repainting the historic, 87-year-old George Washington Memorial (a.k.a. Aurora) Bridge for the Washington State Department of Transportation. It will take about 15,000 gallons of paint, and about two more years, to complete the cleaning and repainting of the steel structure.
Crews from Liberty Maintenance will be doing the second phase of the project, touching up steel trusses and areas below the bridge deck still unpainted after phase one. Because of the massive size of the bridge, and the need to contain and keep clean the environment around the work site, the cleaning and painting will be done in sections. Crews will wrap the bridge in a containment system to protect our community, including the natural environment.
Before actually painting the Aurora Bridge structure, the crew must first sandblast off flaking, chipping old paint, to get down to bare metal. The crew will then put on layers of primer before spraying on a coat of Bulkhead Machinery Gray paint.
Repainting the Aurora Bridge is an essential part of basic maintenance of the steel structure, to check rust and decay. Left unchecked, decaying and rusting steel threatens the stability of the bridge.
While much of the work of phase two on painting the Bridge will be beneath the structure, some of the set-up and painting work will require occasional nighttime lane reductions on the surface. There may also be nighttime lane reductions on nearby roads such as Dexter Avenue.
Closures will be posted on the Washington Department of Transportation website (click here.) Finally, expect to see, after the painting, repaving of the bridge surface, which was last repaved 20 years ago.