TRAFFIC/TRANSIT: Tuesday watch, third week of West Seattle Bridge closure

5:40 AM: The high-rise West Seattle Bridge remains closed for the 15th consecutive morning.

The low bridge is reserved for transit, freight, emergency response, and Harbor Island access – spot enforcement started Monday, and you’ll see new signage and lane striping to reinforce the restrictions.

For general traffic, the main route across the Duwamish River is the 1st Avenue South Bridge (map) – that’s also how to get to I-5, cutting across Georgetown.

Or you can use the South Park Bridge (map).

Check the @SDOTBridges Twitter feed to see if a bridge is opening for marine traffic.

TRANSIT ALERTS FOR TODAY:

As first reported here, Metro‘s schedule is reduced further. Use the lookup to see which trips are canceled.

The Water Taxi’s schedule is reduced too – 2 morning departures and 2 evening returns – and its shuttles are no longer operating.

ROAD WORK REMINDER:

Work on the last section of Avalon to be paved, west of 35th SW, is happening this week – striping in the full project zone, too.

OTHER LINKS

SDOT’s traffic map
Our traffic-cams page

Let us know what you’re seeing if you’re still commuting – comment, or text (not if you’re at the wheel!) 206-293-6302.

Brandon April 7, 2020 (6:00 am)

How much work has been done and what is the expected reopening? Drove by on a perfectly sunny day yesterday and didn’t see a single sign of any construction or workers or anything.

J LEHMANN April 7, 2020 (1:48 pm)

I work in construction bidding and I would he suprised is SDOT even hires someone to do the work by August, provided Engineering is done by that point.Best case this could be fixed by February.

smittytheclown April 7, 2020 (8:31 am)

Getting frustrated not seeing any activity on the bridge during the stay-at-home order. Maybe the cameras are not picking up the activity?I hope they are bringing in the best and the brightest from around the world to help find solutions. Not sure I trust those who don’t even acknowledge that the NB99 bus lane may have expedited the problem.

WSB April 7, 2020 (9:06 am)

See our Thursday story
https://westseattleblog.com/2020/04/west-seattle-bridge-cracks-still-growing-post-closure-and-other-news-from-our-quick-qa-with-sdots-director/
Craig April 7, 2020 (9:32 am)

Red paint causes concrete to crack?
- ACG April 7, 2020 (1:22 pm)
  
  No, not the paint. I think it is the back-up of traffic onto the WS bridge when they opened the bus only lane on NB 99. Folks are wondering if the the weight of all of those vehicles idling there on the bridge (due to the traffic snarl the bus lane caused when they opened it) had anything to do with the rapid increase of the cracking that was documented in the last few months.
  - smittytheclown April 7, 2020 (1:57 pm)
    
    Exactly. He said it was probably because that side gets more sunlight. Right.
Joe Z April 7, 2020 (10:38 am)

Pure speculation since they don’t have a repair plan yet, but it feels like the best case scenario would be to have the temporary shoring done by the end of the summer and limited traffic allowed to return to the bridge by the fall. Of course they may end up determining that traffic can not safely return until the full repair is implemented. If that is the case than I doubt there will be any traffic on the bridge until some time in 2021. Even 2022 is not out of the question. As long they establish fast and sufficient bus service (including some new express routes to north Seattle) then I’m not too worried about it, the reduction in noise and pollution has been quite pleasant. It’s really great to walk about the Avalon Triangle area right now which is usually a nightmare for pedestrians.

Moon April 7, 2020 (9:00 am)

Does SDOT has a timeline for the construction? If not, how long will take them to estimate a timeline?

WSB April 7, 2020 (9:04 am)

See our Thursday story
https://westseattleblog.com/2020/04/west-seattle-bridge-cracks-still-growing-post-closure-and-other-news-from-our-quick-qa-with-sdots-director/
- Moon April 7, 2020 (9:20 am)
  
  Thank you for sending the link, I saw that article few days back. But I still didn’t see the timeline. Would you confirm with SDOT estimate timeline?
  - WSB April 7, 2020 (9:24 am)
    
    As reported, there IS no timeline, because until the problem is understood (WHY the bridge continues cracking, even with “live load” off it), they can’t make a plan to temporarily fix it, which will enable permanent repairs. In SDOT’s words, the current timeline is “lengthy closure.”
    - Pat April 7, 2020 (7:19 pm)
      
      Maybe when they built the bridge they took shortcuts to “save money” and used inferior concrete.
  - Moon April 7, 2020 (9:26 am)
    
    My experience with SDOT it may take a year to fix. “stay at home” order may only last for couple moths.
    - Anne April 7, 2020 (9:50 am)
      
      Best hope it only takes a year to fix. My fear is that it will have to come down-then what-would the new plan incorporate light rail? The planning & actual building of something of that magnitude-would take years.
    - Nathan April 7, 2020 (11:41 am)
      
      I was prevented from crossing the low bridge this morning to access Harbor Island. The police officer would not accept the letter from my employer confirming we are an essential business. I had my business card and ID, but the officer told me I need a placard from my employer. I called SDOT and was told they had never heard this before… Clearly no one is communicating to the officers that local access is allowed.
    - Scott McCloud April 7, 2020 (1:07 pm)
      
      Did they issue you a ticket or just force you to turn around?
    - Question Authority April 7, 2020 (4:00 pm)
      
      Anybody can print up a letter just to claim a work location on the island, go around like the rest of us because the bridge is not the only road to work.
    - Juicebox April 7, 2020 (12:13 pm)
      
      If there are a couple moths you should close the window.

JDP April 7, 2020 (9:12 am)

Definitely activity on the high bridge yesterday. At least four vehicles parked at the top of the bridge as well as a porta-potty.

aRG April 7, 2020 (9:44 am)

The porta-potty will tell us if the bridge can handle a load.

Eddie April 7, 2020 (9:18 am)

You do realize that a lot of the cracking is accessed from inside the bridge beams.Noted that the low bridge bike counter was around 150 yesterday at 11am, where it would commonly be around 500.

Mj April 7, 2020 (9:24 am)

JDP – I hope the porta potty has TP in it.

Kelley April 7, 2020 (9:39 am)

I thought I read initially that healthcare workers would be allowed to use the low bridge. I work at Swedish and my husband works at Harborview – this reroute is a big inconvenience to those of us who still have to commute. Traffic had been very light on the low bridge during my commuting hours.

WSJ April 7, 2020 (10:04 am)

“Yeah, but when is it going to be fixed?”Lord almighty, people. As the blog has said many many many times, we don’t even know why it’s cracking. There is no timeline, and the moment there is one, it will be reported broadly and loudly. You probably ask your mechanic how long the weird noise your car is making will take to fix before they even open the hood.

onion April 7, 2020 (10:24 am)

Just got back from a trip to Sodo and passed the First Ave onramp to the high bridge. A road crew was painting red stripes and the words BUS ONLY on the approach to the onramp. Seems as if they might allow buses to use the high bridge during the repairs. Perhaps that was mentioned in the blog’s full story on the latest briefing? I didn’t have time to read that story.

Community Member April 7, 2020 (10:27 am)

I’ve been discussing this with a retired civil engineer with extensive experience with bridges & prestressed concrete. Entirely consistent with what WSB has reported. Based on the public info, my engineer says this will be a long closure, because they can’t plan a fix for a problem until they are able to understand what is causing the problem. There is even a chance that they will conclude that it is a design flaw or structural flaw that isn’t fixable. Then they would have to build an entire new bridge. So – long closure.

MT April 7, 2020 (10:52 am)

What about motorcycles? Hopefully they allow motorcycles on the Spokane st bridge

Leelee April 7, 2020 (2:00 pm)

Dude honestly I bet u could walk it over the bridge in the side path if anything— would still save u a ton of time, if they decide to not allow motorcycles

West Seattle Lurker April 7, 2020 (11:08 am)

Thanks for the continued reporting! Assuming a fix of the bridge is possible, where would they pull the funding from? The 30$ car tab initiative has gutted most funding for anything new………Applying for a federal grant would add x number of years to the process………I see this bridge being fixed in maybe 3-4 years, if they can even fix it, mostly likely it seems they’d build a new one, so maybe 5-7 years. I hope I’m wrong though but I just can’t see this being a quick fix.

WSB April 7, 2020 (11:30 am)

That hasn’t been discussed publicly yet but I suspect we might get a hint tonight because there’s a short bridge update on the agenda for the Move Seattle Levy Oversight Committee’s meeting, which I’ll be phoning in to cover. Meantime, the council took a necessary process step last week by adding it to the Capital Improvement Project watchlist.
WS Guy April 7, 2020 (2:25 pm)

Whoah there, Mr/Ms Optimist. As an armchair engineer, I can say with confidence that it will be 10 years minimum.

Ben Haley April 7, 2020 (11:51 am)

All we need to do is rename the 1st Ave route the “Freedom Bridge,” the preferred choice of true patriots

Moon April 7, 2020 (12:10 pm)

How about couple ferry services for car and pedestrian? Just a thought.

MV Chavez April 7, 2020 (3:16 pm)

5 years

Question Authority April 7, 2020 (4:03 pm)

I’m a cheerful optimist, 4.5 years.

flimflam April 7, 2020 (6:08 pm)

@nathan, who said “I was prevented from crossing the low bridge this morning to access Harbor Island. The police officer would not accept the letter from my employer confirming we are an essential business. I had my business card and ID, but the officer told me I need a placard from my employer. I called SDOT and was told they had never heard this before… Clearly no one is communicating to the officers that local access is allowed. “the access to the low bridge has nothing what-so-ever to do with “essential businesses” – the people permitted access is pretty easy to see – “The low bridge is reserved for transit, freight, emergency response, and Harbor Island access”

Sorry, comment time is over.