By Kirk Boxleitner, Marysville Globe
MARYSVILLE — The State Route 529 Ebey Slough Bridge reopened one day early, and opened all four lanes of traffic to the public for the first time at 10:32 a.m. on Sunday, March 10.
While the previously open two lanes on the east side of the bridge were closed on schedule on Friday, March 8, at 8 p.m., the Washington State Department of Transportation had projected keeping the bridge closed until 5 a.m. on Monday, March 11.
The weekend closure allowed bridge traffic to go from one lane in each direction to two lanes each for northbound and southbound traffic, after the concrete barrier separating the west and east lanes of the bridge was removed, and the pavement was re-striped.
Joe Rooney, chief inspector for the project with WSDOT, reported to Kris Olsen of WSDOT Communications that the weekend went well.
“The work went very smoothly,” Olsen said. “We’re very happy with the results, and we hope drivers are as well. The bridge officially reopened to traffic at 10:32 a.m. on Sunday, 18 and a half hours earlier than scheduled. Good weather and a good construction plan played roles in the early completion of the work.”
Besides the removal of the barrier and the re-striping of the highway, crews also installed a stamped concrete sidewalk across SR 529, just south of its intersection with First Street. The red-tinted stamped concrete design was requested by the city of Marysville when WSDOT first began designing the project.
“The look is intended to be a reminder of old-fashioned brick and cobblestone, to fit in with the city’s plans for the waterfront,” said Olsen, who noted that the project has some landscaping left to complete. “We’ll also put down a final layer of asphalt later this spring, in late April or May, since it requires that the ground temperature be 50 degrees or warmer. We’ll need another weekend closure for that.”