Load Restrictions Removed From Greene Street Bridge Today

Well it's official. The Greene Street Bridge is now strong enough to
support the weight of fully loaded semis and other trucks. Until a project to strengthen it started this fall, the bridge was considered functionally obsolete, or not built to handle today's large loads and additional truck axles.

Epoxy injections were made to fill cracks in the bridge and carbon fiber reinforcing material applied to make the structure stronger. And it all happened in just a little over three months, which is really quick for this kind of work!

 

The $1.7 million total project cost included unexpected expenses for the injections. A full bridge replacement would have cost almost $12 million and taken years. SRTC provided about $800,000 in funds from the Surface Transportation Program for this project and the rest came from the Arterial Street Fund.

The project wrapped up recently and the City of Spokane marked the accomplishment with a ceremony today to take down the load limit signs that stated in the past that the bridge wasn't safe for large trucks and equipment.

Mayor David Condon gave a short speech about the importance of the bridge as a freight route and a representative from the contractor that did the work talked about what it took to retrofit the bridge, then the big moment when the sign came down, followed by a parade of semis across the bridge, all honking their horns and a fire truck with lights going. It was all very dramatic!