Insuring the new Narrows Bridge

The in basket: Roland Powell notes that Galloping Gertie, the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, collapsed 67 years ago this November. He wondered if the state has taken steps to make sure that a sorry byproduct of the collapse – the discovery that the insurance agent who was supposed to have bought policies on the bridge had misappropriated the money and it had no coverage – isn’t repeated.

The in basket: Roland Powell notes that Galloping Gertie, the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, collapsed 67 years ago this November. He wondered if the state has taken steps to make sure that a sorry byproduct of the collapse – the discovery that the insurance agent who was supposed to have bought policies on the bridge had misappropriated the money and it had no coverage – isn’t repeated.
The out basket: It’s not the state’s concern yet, as Tacoma Narrows Constructors owns the bridge and is responsible for its insurance until it turns the span over to the state.
The state will insure it then, for the duration of toll collection, and I’m sure its bean counters are well aware of the necessity of making sure the policies are purchased. They expect the $110 million in insurance over the 24 years of tolls to constitute about 5 percent of the total cost of building and operating the bridge.
Curiously, for reasons I don’t quite grasp, once the tolls come off, the state will self-insure the bridge as it does its other non-toll facilities.
The story of that 1940 insurance agent, who had to serve two years in prison for the embezzlement, is one of the fascinating pieces of information on the extensive Web site the state has created for the new Narrows Bridge project. It’s at www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge. Click on History & More, then on the large People icon.
Among the information there: That bridge was insured for $800,000, just 1 percent of the construction cost of the new one. The stolen premiums came to $70,000, of which French returned $17,500.