(UPDATED THURSDAY MORNING with some clarification on the lane closures under the bridge, in case you wondered too)

(WSB photo by Christopher Boffoli, from 2012 cushion-replacing work that’s about to be redone)

4:02 PM: Quick update on the upcoming Fauntleroy Expressway earthquake-safety cushion re-replacement project: While SDOT’s most-recent announcement said the first overnight closure of the west end of the bridge would be this Sunday night, we noticed a signboard that said Monday night (May 16th), so we checked with project spokesperson Paul Elliott. He tells WSB that indeed, next Monday night will be the first closure. Meantime, he says they are still awaiting detailed information on the lane-closure plans for surface Spokane Street under the bridge.

6:08 PM: A full announcement is now out:

The first overnight closure of the Fauntleroy Expressway will occur this coming Monday, May 16, at 9 p.m., a delay of one day from the previously announced schedule.

The Monday night bridge closure will be the first of an expected 40-50 weeknight closures necessary to complete the Fauntleroy Expressway Bearing Pad Replacement Project. On these nights, the Expressway will be closed from just west of the Delridge Way SW on/off ramp westward to where the road turns south (where the road is no longer a bridge).

Once the weeknight closures begin, they will regularly run from Sunday evenings until Friday morning. Each night the bridge will close at 9 p.m. and will reopen the following morning at 5 a.m. The bridge will NOT be closed on Friday or Saturday evenings, and the closure start time will be delayed until 11 p.m. on those nights when the Mariners or Sounders are playing and expecting attendance of 20,000 or more.

During the closure, westbound motorists will be detoured off the Expressway at the Delridge Way SW exit, and directed to proceed westbound on surface Spokane St to SW Avalon Way. At that point, motorists can turn north or south, depending on their ultimate destination. Eastbound motorists will be detoured from the Expressway at 35th Ave SW, where they will be directed eastbound onto SW Avalon Way. That street quickly turns to head north. At Spokane St, motorists will be directed eastbound on surface Spokane St below the bridge, and will use the Delridge Way on-ramp to access the high level bridge and the Expressway headed east.

Construction crews will be replacing the 674 bearing pads on the Fauntleroy Expressway, a complicated job requiring the bridge to be jacked from underneath to access and replace the bearing pads. Construction crews will set the jacks from underneath the bridge during the day, with the actual jacking and bearing pad replacement occurring at night when the bridge is closed.

The daytime work will require periodic closures of one of the surface lanes of Spokane St below the bridge. To minimize the impact to rush hour traffic, two lanes of eastbound traffic will remain open until 9 a.m. each day, while two westbound lanes will remain open after 3:30 p.m. each day.

ADDED THURSDAY MORNING: We asked SDOT for some clarification on the lane closures, and just received the replies. First – will the lanes be closed in their entirety beneath that section of the bridge? Reply: “No. They will only be closing a lane adjacent to their work. So we don’t expect the lane closure to be more than a block or two in length.” And: “There are no plans to close more than one lane in either direction on Spokane Street.”