The Washington State Department of Transportation hopes to change its plans, from opening the White River Bridge to one lane after temporary repairs were made to going straight into permanent repairs.

The bridge between Enumclaw and Buckley was suddenly closed on Aug. 18 when a vac-truck hit all of the bridge’s seven panels.

After examining the extensive damage, WSDOT announced it would install five temporary braces and open the bridge to a single alternating lane by the end of September.

Instead, the department wants to go straight into an emergency repair contract.

According to Communications Manager RB McKeon, WSDOT predicts that installation of the temporary braces would begin by the end of this week, and work would be complete by about Sept. 15, “give or take a few days.”

“We’d then like to move directly to the permanent repairs under an emergency contract,” she said. “… if we are able to proceed to an emergency contract, we anticipate the permanent repairs will begin on our around Sept. 15, which means we won’t reopen the road to a single lane of traffic as there won’t be a gap in time between the work.

“If we are unable to find a contractor who is willing to take on the emergency contract requirements we do have a Plan B, C, etc. and if there is a reasonable period of time between the completion of the installation of the braces and when we proceed with the permanent repairs, we will return to the idea of reopening the bridge on a short-term basis with a single lane of travel down the center line controlled by a temporary signal,” McKeon continued.

An emergency contract would be for 30 working days (as opposed to 30 days straight), though a goal for a full opening has not been set, since work can be paused or suspended if necessary.

“Our goal is to reopen the bridge to its pre-strike condition as quickly as possible,” McKeon said, noting that there are no funds for a full bridge replacement.