A date has been picked for the opening of the $175 million West Seattle Bridge project in Center square, Washington. Provided that the crew completes the remaining work as planned, the bridge is expected to open by September. The bridge had to undergo repairs due to excessive cracking, discovered by the Seattle Department of Transportation(SDOT) in 2013.
Since the inception of the West Seattle Bridge project in early 2020, SDOT has faced many challenges during its construction. After overcoming COVID-19, strikes and even nesting falcons, the crew eventually succeeded in pouring structural concrete into the bridge. Once this phase was successful, the SDOT officials began looking towards opening the bridge this year.
Remaining construction work on the West Seattle Bridge
SDOT is now working with its construction contractor, Kraemer North America, on finalizing the sequence of the remaining work. Overall, what’s left to complete the bridge project includes finishing epoxy injections and carbon fiber wrapping. Furthermore, this final phase also requires paving installations, safety inspection platforms and the removal of the remaining construction equipment.
Upon completing construction on the West Seattle Bridge, SDOT also plans to perform numerous tests before declaring it safe for use. These tests will involve driving heavy equipment over the bridge and letting engineers monitor the bridge’s response in real-time. In order to ensure that the repairs worked as they expected.
Monitoring systems and mechanisms were also installed in previous phases of the West Seattle Bridge construction. According to SDOT, this system comprises hundreds of movement sensors, cameras and other instruments. More importantly, these systems will help detect the further growth of any existing cracks within the bridge. In addition, the staff overseeing the bridge repairs will receive timely alerts, since the technology monitors the bridge 24/7.
Besides the $175 million construction cost of the project, SDOT has also infused $50 million into creating detours in other areas. This was a necessary measure to ease traffic congestions caused by the West Seattle Bridge closure. Communities and business districts in Highland Park and the Duwamish Valley were the major beneficiaries of the $50 million infusion.
