SDOT announces new delayed timeline for reopening West Seattle Bridge in September
The West Seattle Bridge is scheduled to reopen as soon as the week of Sept. 12, the Seattle Department of Transportation announced Thursday.
The updated reopening timeline was discussed during a West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force meeting.
“We expect the West Seattle Bridge to be open to traffic during the week of September 12. Sharing that today is a relief since our focus has always been on safely getting everyone back on the bridge ASAP,” said Heather Marx, SDOT program manager. “It’s been hard having to wait for this update, but we did need to get through the concrete work to understand exactly where we were schedule-wise.”
The closure dates back to March of 2020, when workers discovered cracks in the structure during a routine inspection.
“We know that all of West Seattle, South Park, and Georgetown have had the bridge reopening top of mind since it closed,” said Councilmember Lisa Herbold. “I am still holding out hope for a summer re-opening, but I appreciate SDOT’s announcement today; it lets us know that we’re close – just three months away.”
Former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, who is now the co-chair of the task force, spoke about the difficulties of providing a specific date for the reopening during the task force’s previous meeting in early May.
“Let me just say on behalf of SDOT that they gave us a date and then a concrete strike got in the way,” he said at the time. “Not their fault, I think. I don’t think we were the reason for the strike but parties have gotten together and now the pours are now happening.”
An update during that meeting was also provided by Heather Marx, director of downtown mobility at SDOT.
“The key inputs into when the repairs will be complete are concrete availability and completing the concrete pours,” she said. “Under normal circumstances, getting concrete poured is not a big deal and it happens pretty quickly over a week or two.”
SDOT previously stated that concrete takes 28 days to be cured and that it had finished pouring concrete inside the bridge on May 26.
SDOT says it plans to confirm the bridge’s opening date 30 days prior to the week of Sept. 12.
“I’m relieved we finally have a safe and certain reopening date, and I know it’s disappointing to many that the concrete strike delays could not be overcome. I urge the project managers to consider extra shifts so the bridge re-opens before schools re-open,” said Councilmember Alex Pedersen. “While I look forward to re-opening this vital regional bridge after more than two years of repairs, this must also be a wake-up call to reprioritize and reinvest in all our aging bridges.”
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