Week of March 2, 2026
On Monday and Tuesday, crews took apart the crane and removed it from the site.
On Tuesday, a green trailer was delivered and placed next to the two gray trailers in the above photo. These will filter water that is pumped out of the drilled holes.
How many vehicles does it take to install a new power pole? Apparently 8! Thursday power was cut to several homes on the bridge end of Olympiad while workers put a new pole up.
The parts of a new crawler mounted crane were delivered and assembled this week. The two new blue cranes belongs to the drilling contractor, Malcolm. The larger one looks a bit more sturdy than the previous one.
On Friday, many deliveries arrived in preparation for drilling to start on Monday.
Week of March 9, 2026
Monday. The "drilling" has begun! There is no corkscrew-shaped bit, but a device that oscillates and rotates to loosen the material which is pulled up by a bucket with "claws." Below is an illustration the drilling contractor, Malcolm, put into a slide show for WA DOT. Here is the link to the slideshow: https://wsdot.wa.gov/eesc/bridge/user_Content/drilled_shafts/oscillator_presentation.pdf
Several of these cylinders called casings or caissons are lowered into the hole as the excavator digs down. This prevents the collapse of dirt and provides a shaft for the rebar cages to slip down. Dirt is pulled out and deposited into dump trucks. Who knows where all this glacial till will end up!?
A geologist contracted by Malcolm Drilling told us that the drilling/excavating is going well.
By the end of the day, the cage had been settled into the shaft.
Look at the teeth on this device! In this photo, it is being put away for the day.
At the end of the day, pipe was fitted together and lowered into the shaft inside the cage. Stay tuned to learn what purpose this pipe serves!
Tuesday started with a bang! Literally! It sounded like thunder, but it was steel plates being put into position for the crawler crane to move from pier #1 to pier #2.
Cement trucks arrived later in the morning and filled the shaft with concrete.
The caissons/casings were lifted out as the level of the cement rose. These were set aside to use in the second pier construction.
The crawler crane was moved to the southeast and they started a new shaft. By the end of the day, they finished digging and lowering casings/caissons.
Wednesday morning, cement trucks came again to complete pier #2.
Even as the day got stormy on Wednesday, workers continued.
By Friday, all four piers were complete, in spite of snow!
Week of March 16, 2026
It took two days for the Malcolm drilling people to take apart their crane and remove their equipment.
The crawler crane was taken apart and components were loaded onto trailers. It took several trucks to carry away tons of weights, the device responsible for oscillating the caissons, the treads (one truck for each tread!), the boom pieces, and finally the body. It appeared to be suspended and the truck had to be precisely backed up beneath it. It required many tries before the trailer was in the right position, then the crane body was lowered onto it, and away it went!
The deer were glad the work was done for the day!
Thursday and Friday, it was all about rock and dirt. The trucks make such a racket bumping over the steel sheets!
Week of March 23, 2026
Lots of rock!
Excavation began inside the coffer dams this week.
Somewhere beneath this water are the tops of the cement piers.
Eventually the water was removed and both supports are exposed.
Why are these concrete supports so far below grade? This is a screen shot taken from page 8 of the Final Design Plan on Kitsap County's website (you can click on the button at the bottom of this page to access it). Perhaps the answer can be found in this diagram.
On the right, this is another screen shot --the bird's eye view of the section of bridge from page 8. All that rock will maybe be used as the buried "riprap" around the abutment?
By the end of the day on Friday, crews had created a ramp for the excavator to drive down, a set of stairs for workers was in place, and some forms had been constructed.
Close to 1:30 am a loud noise woke us up. It seemed to come from the construction site. Around 9:00 am on Saturday, several workers arrived. It appeared that they put the crane through its paces, extending the boom, lowering the hook and pulleys, and other movements. Hopefully nothing was damaged in the night.
