Crews will close one lane of Highway 20 next week to inspect the Deception Pass bridges. The bridges are inspected once every two years.

Inspection crews will close one lane from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, March 23 through Friday, March 27. Flaggers will direct traffic through the work zone. Drivers should expect delays of up to 10 minutes.

Crews thoroughly inspect the two Deception Pass bridges every two years and maintain them on a regular schedule. Using an “Under the Bridge Inspection Truck,” crews extend a steel arm with a bucket over the railing and under the bridge so inspectors can examine the structure.

The bridges were last inspected March 29, 2007.

There are roughly 7,000 bridges on the state, city and county road systems and most are inspected every two years. WSDOT crews inspected 1,909 state and local agency-owned bridges in 2008. This year, crews are scheduled to inspect 2,018 bridges.

The Deception Pass Bridges were built in 1935, two years before the Golden Gate Bridge.

For more information about bridge inspections, visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/Bridge/Reporting/Inspection.htm.