Delays & Restrictions Return As Project To Overhaul Vantage Bridge Restarts

After enjoying several months without delays or lane closures, drivers on Interstate-90 may soon experience both as seasonal work on the Vantage Bridge (Medal of Honor Bridge) starts up again.

CREWS ENTER YEAR THREE OF PROJECT TO FULLY OVERHAUL VANTAGE BRIDGE

The 525-foot span across the Columbia River is entering its third year of a four-and-a-half-year project to fully reconstruct the decking of the bridge, which has carried freeway traffic between Grant and Kittitas Counties since 1962.

Crews halted their most recent stretch of seasonally-scheduled work on the bridge on Oct. 31, 2025, but motorists have still been dealing with uneven lanes and several bumps, along with reduced speed limits of 55 mph since then.

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DELAYS, SLOWDOWNS & RESTRICTIONS SOON LIKELY OVER VANTAGE BRIDGE

As work restarts for the spring season, drivers might soon potentially encounter added vehicle width restrictions and round-the-clock lane closures with lengthy delays during peak travel periods, especially as the weather warms up.

The 2026 construction schedule for the bridge is set to get underway next Monday, March 2, and will again run through October. However, single lane closures on the bridge's westbound side are slated to occur as early as this week - between Tuesday (Feb. 24) and Friday (Feb. 27).

The entire project is scheduled to wrap up in the spring of 2028 and has been pegged at an estimated cost of $79 million.

VANTAGE BRIDGE HAS RECENT HISTORY OF FRIGHTENING HOLES IN ITS DECKING

The project to completely revamp the bridge began in 2024 following five years of intermittent emergency repairs that were done primarily to fill a recursive series of holes that went all the way through the span's road surface layer to the bottom of its rebar and concrete decking structure.

From 2019 to 2023, the emergency repairs resulted in expenses totaling $518,000 and caused 85 days of unscheduled lane closures on the bridge.

The last time the span underwent a full overhaul was in 1982. This November, the bridge will turn 64 years old. It was built to replace the old Vantage Bridge following the construction of Wanapum Dam, which caused enough water to backup in the Columbia River that it would have overwhelmed the old span. The original steel cantilever truss - built in 1927, was relocated when the new bridge opened and still extends across the Lower Snake River at Lyons Ferry as part of State Route 261.