As noted here earlier today, the City Council will get a briefing Monday morning on what’s newly dubbed the West Seattle High-Rise Bridge Safety Project – to address the cracking problem that led to the bridge’s sudden closure four days ago. Tonight, we have a preview, via the slide deck published on the city website:
(Or see it here in PDF.) Among the new information the slide deck reveals:
-Further details on the monitoring of cracks dating back to 2013
-One month ago, “Engineering consultant recommends reducing traffic load” so SDOT began “preparing for discussions with City leaders and community outreach”
-After an inspection on Monday morning, “Public and private sector engineers agreed that the bridge was no longer reasonably safe for ordinary travel” so the closure decision was made and announced “within hours”
No repair plan timeline or estimate, but it DOES appear they think it can be fixed. The presentation includes:
• Seek interim repairs with a goal of restoring some traffic
• Accelerate major maintenance/repair to extend bridge life by 10+ years
Also revealed: The low bridge needs some work: it’s described as the “deteriorating primary alternate
route” to the high bridge, with the recommendations:
• Continue weekly inspection and monitoring
• Complete load rating project
• Complete ped gate replacement
• Complete controls upgrade project
• Complete rehabilitation of the Pier
6 and Pier 7 lift cylinders
The slide deck also has an org chart of key members of the project team. West Seattle-residing Heather Marx, who most recently has served as “downtown mobility director” amid a construction crush, is listed as the project chief. (That wasn’t mentioned during our phone interview with her for this Wednesday night followup.) And the presentation’s last page, listing “next steps,” includes this one: “Conduct study to determine the structure’s remaining useful life (start fall 2020).”
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