Community Transportation
Westbound Tacoma Narrows Bridge needs more than a facelift
Like anything that is three quarters of a century old, the westbound Tacoma Narrows Bridge needs some work — and it’s not just cosmetic, according to the Washington Department of Transportation.
The span needs four new finger expansion joints and updated hydraulic dampers, or shock absorbers. Its emergency power systems, which support fog horns and navigation lights, need to be replaced.
Total cost: $12 million. The state transportation department says it doesn’t have the money and for some of the work it doesn’t have the expertise. That means it will have to seek bids.
The westbound Narrows Bridge is over 75 years old and needs $12 million in repair and maintenance work. Ed Friedrich / Gig Harbor Now
“The necessary repairs are more complex and extensive than what (department) maintenance crews can perform with in-house resources,” said Cara Mitchell, Washington Department of Transportation communications manager. “Replacing the damaged expansion joints would require (the department) to advertise and award a construction contract to complete the work.”
That repair of the finger joints will be scheduled in the next six years, Mitchell said.
Recently, the Washington State Department of Transportation closed two lanes of traffic on the westbound bridge over two weekends to work on failing parts that needed attention right away. When two lanes are closed, Highway 16 traffic often backs up all the way to the Union Street exit in Tacoma.
“This bridge is a very large structure,” said Evan Grimm, a WSDOT bridge preservation engineer. “It is very costly to maintain and preserve.
“They’re basically chasing after the problem that’s beyond their capacity. The joints are falling apart. But it’s not unsafe. We’d never allow traffic on the bridge if it was unsafe.”
Tacoma Narrows Bridge maintenance
About 45,000 vehicles drive over the westbound bridge every day, Grimm said. The expansion joints take a pounding from these treks, and they have a limited life span.
“They should have been replaced a long time ago,” said Grimm. “They’ve been on the to-do list for at least five years. Because of different trade-off decisions, we’re not just stretching the money for this bridge, but across the state’s 3,400 bridges.”
More than 300 of the state’s bridges are more than 80 years old, Grimm said. With proper maintenance, a bridge lifespan can extend well beyond that, he said.
WSDOT typically inspects the Tacoma Narrows Bridge each summer, Grimm said. The last inspection was in July 2025, he said. The next structural inspection is in September, Mitchell said.
WSDOT posted this image on social media in April to illustrate damage that needed repairing on the westbound Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
Crews also conduct weekly maintenance inspections checking for potholes, electrical lines and storm water systems, fog horns and aerial lights, Mitchell said. The department performs more-involved inspections every one to five years. Those can include in-depth underwater, mechanical, electrical and structural inspections.
The finger joints have been on a list to be replaced since 2020, said Tina Werner, Washington State Department of Transportation public information officer for Maintenance Operations and Emergency Management. The department pays for repair costs through limited preservation funding, Werner said.
The bridge’s expansion joints and complexity make repairs challenging and beyond the capabilities of the maintenance crews, Werner said.
“What we need is a full replacement and that’s a major effort,” Grimm said. “We would need to cast in place (parts of the joints) and excavate.”
Motorists pay a toll on the eastbound lanes. Proceeds from those tolls pay for eastbound building costs, operation and maintenance of the bridge, which opened in 2007. The tolls are required until debt service, deferred sales tax and loans have been repaid, according to the department.
The Washington State Transportation Commission sets state highway toll rates. Toll revenue is not available for maintenance on either span.
Looking ahead across the bridge
The state plans to fix the finger joints and the navigation lights on the westbound span over the next six years, said Werner. No date has been set when the state will begin the repair work on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
“Washington’s transportation system is facing ongoing funding challenges that significantly affect both short-term maintenance and long-term preservation efforts,” Werner said. “(The department) has faced ongoing funding shortfalls for highway preservation for two decades, putting us in a reactionary posture in trying to keep up with the deteriorating infrastructure.”
The department says it won’t consider the rehab work until later this year. The work in late April and early May was emergency work.
That means more lane closures in the future.
For commuters like Shanna Sherman it means long wait times inching along on Highway 16.
A Gig Harbor resident, Sherman commutes to work in Enumclaw. That’s typically a two-hour trip.
“I don’t have another option, so I’m sitting through extra traffic on those days that the bridge is being worked on,” Sherman said.