The following is written by the Washington State Department of Transportation. This is an update from an earlier story, “Drivers take notice: busy bridge near Buckley will close for four weeks,” published Aug. 15

The Washington State Department of Transportation is closing the Buckley Spiketon Bridge a little earlier than planned.

According to a press release, the bridge (also called the Pioneer Way Bridge) will now close starting at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 16. A detour route using Mundy Loss Road, SR 410 and SR 165 will be provided. The closure will remain in place around the clock through Sept. 20.

A month-long around-the-clock closure of the 226-foot-long, 82-year-old bridge was scheduled to begin Aug. 20, to allow crews to repair the deck’s driving surface. In preparation for that work, crews performed a survey of the bridge that revealed settlement of one of the bridge’s piers. The settlement prompted the decision to close the bridge to traffic until engineers can fully analyze the effect of the settlement on the bridge’s structural integrity.

The cause of the settlement is unknown. Inspections of the bridge deck and spot repairs to the driving surface occurred in May and June of this year.

“We know this closure is occurring a few days earlier than announced and that it will cause inconvenience to drivers,” said WSDOT Operations Engineer Chris Keegan. “But we need to know how the pier settlement is affecting the structure before we reopen it. Safety is always our primary focus and we feel closing the bridge today is the prudent and correct action.”

WSDOT has a bridge inspection program that regularly monitors the conditions of all state bridges.

Real-time traffic information is available on the WSDOT app and on the Olympic Region Weekly Construction and Traffic Updates web page.