First set of bridge beams spans Old Reserve Drive
<p><strong>Construction</strong> crews set up Monday night for beam work on the overpass above Old Reserve Drive. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake) </p>
Crews worked through the night Monday to install bridge beams over Old Reserve Drive for the U.S. 93 bypass.
Sletten Construction, the bridge contractor for the Kalispell bypass project, trucked five of the 10 bridge beams from Spokane on Monday afternoon. Crews began lowering the beams into place at 11 p.m. Monday, with the last beam in place around 3 a.m. Tuesday.
Each beam weighs 98 tons and is 113 feet long, according to Sletten Superintendent Jim Koetje. Sletten used one of its own cranes and a crane from Harmon Crane & Rigging Inc. to drop the beams into place.
“Once you get the first one done, it starts moving and getting repetitious,” Koetje said.
The remaining five beams will be installed tonight beginning around 10 p.m.
The traffic realignment affecting traffic around Glacier High School also cleared over the weekend since gravel-hauling trucks are now accessing the bypass via Three Mile Drive. A temporary traffic light has been installed on Stillwater Road between West Reserve Drive and Three Mile Drive.
For more information, visit www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/kalispellbypass or call LHC at 758-6400.