That’s one of the last two columns about to be poured, for a total of 22 that will hold up the new 4th Avenue South offramp for the Spokane Street Viaduct – a key precursor to the widening work that will soon begin. (Some have nicknamed this the “Costco shortcut,” since it will enable eastbound traffic to get off the West Seattle Bridge and onto 4th Ave. S. while bypassing the railroad tracks.) SDOT just hosted a media tour of the project site – that column is directly across 4th from Seattle City Light HQ, and we also got a look at the work that’s proceeding on the south side of the SSV itself. SDOT also announced that this portion of the project is running about a month ahead of schedule. ADDED 3:15 PM: Here’s a view of the ramp work going on under and alongside the existing SSV, just west of 4th – we were allowed to walk up onto the long-closed 4th Ave. onramp for this perspective:

And construction manager Tim Bramsen talked with us – we asked about any surprise challenges they’ve had to work around; his reply included a mention of a West Seattle-related pipeline:

The existing 4th Ave. S. offramp will be demolished later this year, as the widening work begins. The entire $168 million project is scheduled to be done in 2011 and is likely to be even more important to West Seattle drivers than the current SSV offramps, as another route into downtown as the Alaskan Way Viaduct/Tunnel access configuration changes. (A few more photos to come!)