South Park Bridge news this afternoon: $34 million for new bridge

| South Park | Transportation | West Seattle news

(King County rendering of design for future South Park Bridge)
11:14 AM: Just got word that King County Executive Dow Constantine and U.S. Senator Patty Murray promise a big announcement at the South Park Bridge at 2:30 this afternoon. This is about when news was supposed to come in about whether a federal grant via TIGER II would be available for all or part of the rest of the money needed to build a new bridge. 11:23 AM: $34 million grant, per sources cited by seattlepi.com. 11:37 AM: More evidence that TIGER II announcements are coming out – found this East Coast story about a bridge-replacement project there getting $. And more here. 11:50 AM: The Seattle Times (WSB partner) is on the story too. 12:37 PM: News advisory from U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott‘s office says he’ll be there too. It’s been three and a half months since the old bridge was shut down for safety concerns. The county has called the replacement project “shovel-ready” but says it would still take about 2 years to build once all the money’s in. 1:20 PM UPDATE: The Times story is updated with confirmation of the $34 million, from Sen. Murray’s office.

Carson October 15, 2010 (11:23 am)

Smart girl and what timing!! Gotta love those earmarks and stimulus money

Seabug October 15, 2010 (11:28 am)

Just happy to hear that the area is not completey forgotten about or screwed. This never would have happened in Magnolia or Mercer Island. Southpark is a thriving community that deserves that bridge.

clark5080 October 15, 2010 (11:42 am)

It is election season she is sucking up for more votes. I wonder if the money is even there for what she will offer

JanS October 15, 2010 (11:44 am)

so, Clark, are you saying that you’d rather they not get money for this much needed bridge?

Carson October 15, 2010 (11:55 am)

Isn’t it obvious she is doing this (the timing) for votes? Is that any different from how its been done for over 200 years? We elect her to do exactly this. Its call politics. I would also be willing to bet Dino thinks South Park is nothing more than a TV show he won’t let his kids watch

foy boy October 15, 2010 (12:38 pm)

Not a peep out of murry about the bridge. Now behinded in the polls suprise, I’m the savor of south park. Poor gal All she has left is to bring in all her hevey weight friends from DC to bail her out. Remeber when she defended building the bridge to nowhere? If she was intouch with south park maybe we could have used the money for the southpark bridge instead.

JEM October 15, 2010 (12:42 pm)

Hello, Murray has nothing to do with the timing, it is when the grants are being awarded and announced. We’ve known all along that we were waiting for the news about the TIGER II grants in the fall. Geez!

Baba October 15, 2010 (12:51 pm)

I do agree with 200+ years part. I disagree with how much bolder politicians got in buying votes over the last years.Or is it that the average voter is getting dumber and dumber?

Alki Area October 15, 2010 (1:10 pm)

Isn’t this everything we LOVE and HATE about government…this is the PERFECT example. To us locally, especially to those who used to use this bridge, this is a GREAT thing if our Senator or Representative can get the money to fix/replace it.

On the other hand these earmarks and special spending is what we don’t like (when it goes to anyone else) and what we want to stop supposedly. So lets say we do…then what? How does this bridge get fixed? Seattle doesn’t have the money, or the state. So they HAVE to raise some tax/fee to pay for it. We don’t want that. So toll? We can’t toll EVERY individual road project, bridge and pothole repair.

Bottom line, we need stuff fixed, replaced and infrastructure updated (stuff just wears out)…but we don’t want to pay for it, we want to PRETEND it will all magically last forever, but it won’t. We just need to think HOW these things will be kept up or replaced WHEN we build them to begin with…that would be nice.

rob October 15, 2010 (1:52 pm)

i’m still in awe of how much this thing will cost ($130M).

a bridge was recently built in front of hoover dam that is almost 2000 feet long and almost 900 feet above the river. its not a drawbridge but you would think the extremes of where it was constructed would up the price. it cost $114M.

Forest October 15, 2010 (1:58 pm)

Seattle is reliably democratic and Murray doesn’t need to grandstand for votes in this area. If she wanted to pull a last-minute stunt for swaying undecided voters her way, I wager her focus would be on the east side of the state.

gyngersnap October 15, 2010 (2:57 pm)

Maybe I’m naive, but coming up with the money to replace the South Park Bridge wouldn’t make or break an election. I think they just knew it had to be done for the people living there and it’s taken until now to get the money. Thanks, Dow and Patty!

WSB October 15, 2010 (3:27 pm)

Here’s our story from the official announcement event, with a long list of electeds etc. on hand:
https://westseattleblog.com/2010/10/weve-done-it-new-south-park-bridge-funding-officially-announced
.
We’ll be adding video to it once we’re back at HQ – TR

Mike October 15, 2010 (4:56 pm)

Typical decision-making on public project – wait for the crisis, and then act. King County should have been on this situation 10 years ago. And, shouldn’t be taking any credit now.

JanS October 15, 2010 (6:23 pm)

so, all you folks who think it’s “politically expedient” to get this money with Sen. Murray’s help. …if she’s not back there doing exactly what she’s doing..working for us, for the state of WA, then why do we bother to elect anyone. What would be the purpose otherwise? Simplistic, yes, I know, but, still..if we don’t want them to bring money, things back to the state of WA, to represent us, what exactly will they spend their days doing? And, more importantly, who WILL do it?

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