(WSB photo, March 2020),
March 23 is a day not to be forgotten by West Seattleites – the day in 2020 that we suddenly lost access to the high bridge, not to be reopened for two and a half years. When it closed with only hours’ notice because of concerns over cracks that SDOT said had been developing for years, city leaders had no idea how long it would stay closed, nor even – initially – what it would take to enable reopening. Ultimately, reinforcement work was done to address concerns that the bridge might even fall apart; then-Mayor Jenny Durkan subsequently had to decide whether to pursue replacing or repairing the bridge, and ultimately settled on the latter, at a cost of $67 million.
(2022 WSB photo)
The bridge reopened on September 17, 2022, so it’s been open 3 1/2 years since that 2 1/2-year closure. As we have done in advance of past closure anniversaries, we checked in with SDOT. First, here’s their general confirmation of how the bridge is going, in response to our inquiry:
The West Seattle Bridge remains safe and strong. We are still performing regular inspections of the West Seattle High-Rise Bridge and continuously observe the bridge remotely with an intelligent monitoring system of sensors installed at key locations which detect different kinds of movement. Neither the in-person inspections or the remote sensors have identified any unexpected issues or cause for concern.
You might recall that preliminary work was done toward a potential replacement, for a jump-start in case the mayor had decided to go that way. We asked if that’s been revisited lately.
The West Seattle Bridge Replacement Study provided valuable insight into the complexity of potentially replacing the structure. It was important to create this contingency plan to make sure we were prepared to pivot quickly if the repair effort had not gone according to plan, which we were fortunate did not occur. We have no immediate plans to update this study because the bridge is now in stable condition and all evidence indicates that the repaired bridge will stand strong for decades to come.
Specifically, it remains projected that the high bridge will last at least until 2060. Meantime, the low bridge has had sporadic trouble, even after maintenance and upgrades in the past few years, and we have an inquiry out to SDOT regarding what’s ahead for that bridge.