Editor’s note: Due to poor weather, the bridge tentatively opens on Tuesday, May 1.

Previous story:

After months of construction and detours, the new McDonald Creek Bridge tentatively opens late morning, Monday, April 30.

Pat McElroy, Clallam County bridge project engineer, said that crews with Orion Marine Contractors Inc. of Tacoma need to paint stripes on the road and bridge before reopening.

“The painting is weather sensitive but the weather is looking good so we are hopefully optimistic,” he said.

“There are various other small items but as we get closer to that date we are becoming more confident.”

Contractors plan to open the bridge between 11:30 a.m.-noon on Monday, but if it’s raining, it’ll be pushed to the morning of Tuesday, May 1, county officials said.

Agnew Helpful Neighbors Club and Clallam County Commissioner Mark Ozias organized a special ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 28, on the bridge, with a ribbon cutting and small parade of Agnew pioneers followed by a gathering at the Neighbors Club building, 1241 N. Barr Road, for pie and socializing.

Ozias said they envision a short ceremony as a way to say thanks to the contractors for their work and the neighbors for their patience. The bridge won’t open immediately after the ceremony, Ozias said, because organizers didn’t want drivers waiting on the celebration.

“Saturday is the symbolic opening of the bridge,” he said. “Monday will be the actual opening of the bridge.”

More than 10 Agnew pioneers will be the first to cross the new bridge, Ozias said.

Attendees can park on either side of the bridge by the “Road Closed” signs and fences, and walk down, McElroy said.

Crews closed the 1957 bridge on July 5 last year to replace it with a more seismically stable and wider bridge.

Original staff estimates set the project to take about nine months and cost upwards of $3.07 million while leaving a portion of Old Olympic Highway unavailable to drivers.

McElroy said the project remains on budget and that they’ll remove all buildings and equipment by Friday.

Orion Marine Contractors Inc. was granted additional work days going in to May due to rain and snow fall in March, but McElroy estimated then that they’d still finish in mid-April.

Business owners and community members have reported in about the project impacting them in various ways from diminished sales to increased traffic times to higher traffic loads and incidents on nearby roads.

More than 20 Agnew businesses have banded together to support one another following the bridge closure and reopening though.

“It’s certainly been an inconvenience,” Ozias said.

“They’re excited and grateful for the investment. There was common agreement it was a bridge that needed to be replaced and they’re excited it’s going to be reopened. We’re genuinely excited to have a party.”

Participating Agnew pioneers include, Carmen Jarvis, Marsha Brown, Dorothy Ludke, Jim and Evelyn Anderson, Bill Rogers, Terry Hugo, Carrol Gates, Marsha Welch, Ted and Shirley Crosby, and Leroy Kuest.

A community celebration is set for 10 a.m. Saturday, April 28, on the new McDonald Creek Bridge to celebrate it reopening tentatively on April 30. Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash

A crew from Ness Cranes of Seattle hosts the last of four 148-foot reinforced concrete beams into place in last November for the new Old Olympic Highway bridge spanning McDonald Creek. File photo by Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News