Dry Creek Pedestrian Bridge

City of Port Angeles
Port Angeles, Washington

This pedestrian bridge, part of the Olympic Discovery Trail, spans a large, steep ravine and Dry Creek to enhance pedestrian access to the Elwha River. Exeltech designed this 200-foot, two-span pedestrian bridge structure supported on drilled shafts. The bridge piers support the bridge 50 feet above the Dry Creek ravine. Exeltech successfully accelerated the project schedule by two months by phasing advertisement for construction bids. The steel truss bridge structure was advertised for bids before the bridge substructure so that the construction could be completed by the date required by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe to attach a sewer line.

Exeltech’s innovative environmental plan significantly simplified the environmental permitting timeline by selecting a structure design and planning constructability to avoid working in the creek channel. This eliminated the need for several state and federal permit approvals. The Exeltech team also conducted a completeness review of the City’s SEPA checklist to verify that all potential environmental issues were compliant and adequately addressed.