From the ‘in case you wondered too’ file: About this week’s frequent low-bridge openings

| Transportation | West Seattle news

A Harbor Island worker emailed us wondering why the “low bridge” was opening and closing relatively frequently at midday a few days earlier this week without vessels going through. We checked the @SDOTBridges Twitter feed and found verification of the multiple closures, each lasting about 10 minutes. Testing? Trouble? Or? We asked SDOT, whose spokesperson Ethan Bergerson checked it out and replied: “They were training a new bridge operator. In order to ensure that all staff have a thorough understanding of how to operate the bridge safely, all new (ones) spend three days of training opening the bridge 12 times per day. Yesterday was the final day.”

MJ May 3, 2019 (5:54 pm)

A heads up would have been good, bike riders and others could tweak their schedule to avoid the planned training closure

Mike May 3, 2019 (6:32 pm)

Why does that signal heading westbound off the lower bridge always take 3-4 minutes now to turn green? It is allowing traffic off the bridge from Harbor Island but there is never any traffic there. Its been backing up traffic over the bridge regularly lately.