South Park Bridge construction delay: Not done until 2014

New information this afternoon, following up on a story we published last night on our partner site The South Park News: Construction of the new South Park Bridge has hit a snag, and completion will be delayed at least several months.

First word came from King County Roads’ Jay Osborne at last night’s North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting, which we were covering for our other partner site, White Center Now; asked by NHUAC president Barbara Dobkin for an update on the bridge’s timeline, he said there had been some trouble with its foundation, and that “conversations” were under way to figure out how that would affect the schedule.

This afternoon, we talked with King County Department of Transportation spokesperson Jeff Switzer, who says the foundation work did indeed take longer than the contractor expected – particularly the sinking of the caissons through the hardest layer of riverbed – and that means instead of a fall 2013 completion, the bridge won’t be ready until sometime in 2014. The county is awaiting a revised construction schedule, and in the meantime is discussing how to financially help businesses and others affected by the extended period of bridgelessness. It’s already been two and a half years since the old bridge was taken out of service. In the meantime, Switzer says, demolition will start soon on what’s left of the old bridge.

11 Replies to "South Park Bridge construction delay: Not done until 2014"

  • HP gal November 2, 2012 (2:13 pm)

    Bummer. It is a true testament to the people of South Park that the neighborhood hasn’t suffered more. Really looking forward to the new bridge!!

  • trickycoolj November 2, 2012 (2:29 pm)

    Nooo… I was just looking out the conference room window at the bridge yesterday thinking it will be done a year from now and my commute will be so much faster not having to go over the 1st ave bridge. So much for that short lived excitement.

  • Nick November 2, 2012 (2:59 pm)

    man this is bs what the he’ll they need to do something to get back on schedule

  • sophista-tiki November 2, 2012 (3:46 pm)

    NNOOOooOOOooOOOooOOOoooOOooooOOoo!!!

  • MrMatt November 2, 2012 (5:24 pm)

    Wow that’s a heck of a delay. Now, I’m no bridge engineer, nor do I play one on TV, but they’re basically building on the site of the previous bridge, no? You’d figure they’d have a pretty good idea of what they were building on / how soft it was down there from the last bridge.

    Well regardless, sorry about your luck, South Park. :(

  • jeff platt November 2, 2012 (5:47 pm)

    whos really surprized?
    lame news from the LAMEST DOT on the west coast
    i bet its the first delay of many
    its how they do biz
    slap some bikelanes on her thatll speed up constrruction

  • Curiouser November 2, 2012 (7:24 pm)

    MrMatt, it’s actually downstream from the old bridge.

    But I feel sorry for the businesses that are cut off from potential customers on the other side of the bridge.

    Is there any penalty assessed against the contractor?

  • dsa November 2, 2012 (10:02 pm)

    If this is a design/build project I don’t see how fault can be placed on anyone.
    .
    If the county delegated soils investigations as part of the contract, or if there are changed conditions from what were advertised, the completion date certainly would be in jeopardy.

  • robert November 4, 2012 (6:48 pm)

    This smells like a brother in law deal. what? some body not get his payoff?????? put a real engineer on the job and finish the damn/ bridge……….

  • mark mallon November 5, 2012 (5:19 pm)

    cant thy just put up a temp bailey bridge? i really dont get it…

  • denise November 5, 2012 (8:27 pm)

    I think the citizens deserve a better explanation that what has been given. somtime in 2014! That is NOT acceptable. What a bunch of garbage.

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