Permanent repairs on the White River Bridge will begin tomorrow.

According to the Washington State Department of Transportation, department crews finished making temporary repairs ahead of schedule, allowing a private contractor to start their work on Sept. 13.

Guy F. Atkinson Construction will now take over the project, with the goal of fully opening the bridge between Oct. 31 and Nov. 14.

Previous estimates put WSDOT signing a contract by Sept. 15, meaning permanent repair work is now three days ahead of schedule at least.

“Thanks to the hard work of our WSDOT crews, we’re beginning permanent repairs ahead of schedule,” Governor Bob Ferguson said in a press release. “We understand the significant impacts this closure has on our communities. That’s why we’re requiring our contractor to work seven days a week until this critical lifeline is restored.”

The White River Bridge was struck by a vac truck on Aug. 18, causing massive damage to the entire structure; WSDOT senior bridge engineer Geoff Swett said during a Sept. 8 press conference that “[w]e were actually really lucky that we didn’t have another Skagit River incident here.”

The Skagit Bridge on I-5 collapsed in 2013 when an oversize load struck the overhead support beams.

More than 22,000 people drive over the bridge on an average day; now hundreds, if not a couple thousand people, use the Foothills Trail Bridge to get to one place from another; others brave the hour-long detour through Auburn to reach a city normally ten minutes away.

With that vehicle traffic gone, many businesses in both Enumclaw and Buckley have reported steep declines in business, which in part prompted Gov. Bob Ferguson to declare the bridge closure an emergency. This allows for the state to seek reimbursement for construction costs from the federal government.

WSDOT has also said it is working with the vac truck company and its insurance agency for third-party reimbursement.

Temporary work on the bridge started on Sept. 5, which included installing steel bracers that stabilized the bridge while permanent repairs would be made.

It was first announced that after temporary repairs were made, the bridge would open to one lane with alternating traffic. However, WSDOT decided to ultimately not re-open the bridge in favor of starting permanent repairs sooner.

Guy F. Atkinson Construction crews will now be heat-straightening or replacing bent members of the bridge and repainting affected areas.

The goal is to bring the bridge back to pre-strike condition, not to improve it, WSDOT has said, meaning the department expects the bridge to retain its “fair” condition rating that it received in April of this year, despite the fact that the 1949-era bridge’s service life is 75 years — which ended last year.

WSDOT has said there are no funds to replace the bridge or construct a new one at this time.

The cost of the whole project is expected to be between $5 and $6 million.