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Crews will work on I-5 viaduct at night The Oregon Department of Transportation is urging motorists to use caution and be on the lookout for work crews while traveling on the Interstate 5 viaduct at night this week. The work begins between 8 p.m. today and 6 a.m. Monday. Crews will be using chains to survey defects in the bridge roadway. Monday, four crews of two workers will use chains to listen for delaminated roadway, or where the concrete roadway has separated from the bridge. Work crews will be listening to changes in tone as the chains pass over the road. ODOT and OBEC Engineering crews will be on the viaduct for a total of seven nights, weather permitting. They will be working in one lane each night until Wednesday. On Thursday, surveyors will be on the viaduct taking measurements and mapping where the roadway is delaminated. That work will end Saturday. The work is preparation for a $14.7 million improvement project scheduled to begin in January. That project will close one lane in each direction between January and June 2003. Construction workers will hydro-blast the bridge deck, then add a layer of extra-hardened concrete to the roadway. Other work will include modifying the viaduct bridge rails to current safety standards, retrofitting the bridge for earthquakes and providing erosion protection to the bridge bents, or piers, in Bear Creek. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.