The Hoh River Bridge will be closed south of Forks for repairs for three 6-day stretches until mid-October, blocking the full loop around the Olympic Peninsula on Highway 101 and causing hours-long detours for travelers between Forks and Hoquiam.
The bridge will close at 5 a.m. Thursday and stay closed until 5 p.m. Tuesday, marking the first of the six-day closures over the next three weeks while crews make repairs. The next two closures will be between 5 a.m. Oct. 1 and 12 p.m. Oct. 6, and 5 a.m. Oct. 8 and 12 p.m. Oct. 13.
The 95-year-old bridge needs emergency repairs and was closed completely for a week between Sept. 15 and 22 while construction crews replaced four floor beams at two joints under the bridge deck and installed working infrastructure, the Washington State Department of Transportation said.
Cracks were found in the support beams and the steel that supports the driving surface of the bridge earlier this summer, WSDOT said. Repairs will restore the load capacity of the bridge, which has had oversized loads restricted since 2010 and supports 1,400 vehicles a day.
With the bridge closed, there is no other way across the Hoh River, and that means travelers driving between Forks and Hoquiam will need to head the other way on Highway 101 along Hood Canal — a four-hour detour.
Anyone traveling to Hurricane Ridge or Crescent Lake in Olympic National Park who wants to also visit Kalaloch, Ruby Beach or Lake Quinault will need to take Highway 101 along Hood Canal to Highway 108, Highway 8, Highway 12 and back to Highway 101, WSDOT said.
On the days between closures, the bridge will reopen to single-lane, alternating traffic, WSDOT said.
There will be pedestrian access on the bridge, but that is reserved only for emergency responders and is not open to the public, WSDOT said.
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