SHINE — As heavy as 100 gray whales and slower than a banana slug.
That’s how state Department of Transportation officials characterize the second Hood Canal Bridge approach span replacement.
The second of two closures scheduled for Hood Canal Bridge repairs begins Sunday.
The bridge closes promptly at 8 p.m. Sunday and is slated to reopen by 4 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 25.
Workers will replace the east approach span — the bridge segments that connect the floating structures to the land — on the Kitsap County side of the bridge.
The approach span is 640 feet, about the length of two football fields.
During last weekend’s closure, the 190-foot-long west, or Jefferson County, approach span was replaced and the bridge reopened Saturday night, almost 30 hours ahead of schedule.
No early opening this time
But the state Department of Transportation warned that it will likely use the entire 80-hour closure this time.
About 60 Kiewit-General Construction workers are involved in the Kitsap County end replacement project.
That’s 20 more than last weekend’s Jefferson County approach span replacement.
Becky Hixson, Hood Canal Bridge project communications manager, said this section weighs 7.6 million pounds, the equivalent of about 100 mature gray whales and three times more than last week’s replacement section.
The Kitsap County approach span will roll in place at about 5 feet per hour.
That’s slower than the Pacific Northwest banana slug, which, by comparison, slithers on its slime at about 37 feet per hour, according to Hixson.
Regardless of such a painfully slow work pace, Hixson said that rain or shine, Poulsbo-based Kiewit-General plans to start on schedule.