Spokane St. Viaduct Widening Project: From ramp to rubble

One week after the shutdown of the 4th Avenue offramp from the westbound Spokane Street Viaduct section of the West Seattle Bridge, you can see crews wasted no time in taking it down. Marybeth Turner of SDOT visited the construction site on Thursday and shared this photo with us today. The north side of the westbound SSV is where the widening will take place, with a brand-new structure added; the new westbound off/on-ramp will be at 1st Avenue, while a 4th Avenue offramp is being built on the eastbound side. This gives us a reason to remind you that as of minutes from now, the northbound I-5 ramp and Columbian Way ramp to the westbound West Seattle Bridge are both closing for what could be the entire weekend, till Monday morning, though the same shutdown pattern last weekend ended much earlier than planned (on Saturday night); we’ll keep you up to date on changes. The city’s infopages on the project start here; more photos of the ramp demolition are here; our archives of project coverage, dating back more than a year and a half, start here.

mar3c January 30, 2010 (8:18 am)

just wait until the first ave on-ramp gets the same fate later this quarter.
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the only two ways onto the high bridge westbound will be I-5/columbian wy and SR99.
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i hope someone at SDOT is fast-tracking the new parallel viaduct and on-ramps. it will be an interesting summer, to say the least.

WSB January 30, 2010 (8:53 am)

The 4th Avenue offramp on the eastbound side is moving fast and supposed to open this fall.

John Commeree January 30, 2010 (10:16 am)

How many folks remember the traffic signal that used to be on the viaduct at the top of the 4th Ave. ramp? W-bound traffic would stop and E-bound traffic could turn left to head north on Fourth. I think that went away after I-5 was built.

dsa January 30, 2010 (11:47 am)

Hi John Commeree, I’m one of those who used to be able to turn left down that fourth ave off ramp from an eastbound direction on the spokane street viaduct.

miws January 30, 2010 (5:14 pm)

John, thanks for the memory nudge!

I was reminiscing this morning, when I first read this story, about vague memories of that pre-I-5 configuration, but had forgotten about the signal! I guess I was just figuring the ramp was a two-lane/two-way set-up at the time.

Mike

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