SEATTLE — All lanes of the Aurora bridge reopened in time for the Wednesday morning commute.
On Thursday, the Washington State Department of Transportation reduced traffic to two lanes in each direction to allow workers to complete an emergency repair to a damaged support beam under the southbound lanes.
Officials said the beam, also known as a stringer, had corroded and dropped about half an inch.
The bridge, built in 1931, has 13 stringers supporting each section of the structure, officials said.
"When the damaged stringer shifted, nearby stringers carried the weight from the corroded piece," a spokesperson for WSDOT wrote in a news release.
WSDOT engineers discovered the damaged beam Oct. 27 during a scheduled inspection.
"This was a complicated repair because the contractor was working with a stringer that was still holding a section of bridge deck," said WSDOT Assistant Regional Administrator Messay Shiferaw. "We needed to lift the closed part the deck with additional steel to alleviate pressure from the stringer, repair the connecting steel and bolt it all back into place while still supporting the concrete deck."
WSDOT said the lane closures helped to create room for contractor crews to stage equipment during the repairs.
Watch a press conference with WSDOT officials about the lane closures below:
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