WEST SEATTLE BRIDGE: Pier 18 bearing release expected this week; Community Task Force meets Wednesday

Two key notes about the week ahead for the West Seattle Bridge, now in its 8th month of closure:

PIER 18 BEARING RELEASE: SDOT says the stabilization crew plans to release this stuck bearing – originally explained here – this week. Above is an SDOT photo of the temporary brace for that pier. It’s noted in this week’s stabilization update, published today. Once the stuck bearing is released, contractor Kraemer NA moves on to building a new one. More carbon-fiber wrapping is ahead, too.

COMMUNITY TASK FORCE MEETING WEDNESDAY: Now that they’ve had a week to review the Cost-Benefit Analysis, this volunteer advisory group is expected to share its thoughts with the mayor as she prepares to decide on repair now/replace later vs. replace now. The meeting is at noon Wednesday (October 28th), and the viewing link is here. (If there’s any last-minute change, as there was last week, you can check the streaming service’s YouTube channel.)

Alki October 26, 2020 (4:28 pm)

Sorry if I missed it but do we have a new date of when the Mayor announces the decision to repair vs replace? (I know it was originally Oct 21….) Thank you!

WSB October 26, 2020 (5:37 pm)

No, there is no new date yet. Likely in November.
- Leon October 26, 2020 (6:05 pm)
  
  November is WAY too fast for this kind of decision. They need to wait for the mid-term elections of 2022 before they can make a decision on whether to add some more committees to make sure everyone’s voice is heard in the matter. Anything else is way too rushed.
  - WSB October 26, 2020 (6:41 pm)
    
    Ha ha. No midterms in the city, anyway. The mayor and two at-large council seats are on the ballot next year, the other 7 council seats two years after that.

Mj October 26, 2020 (5:51 pm)

And only if SDoT had done this work six years ago when they identified the issue!

Fortunately the bridge is repairable and the stabilization work is like priming your home before putting on the paint. It’s time the City start painting (repairing) the bridge.

Continue to observe October 26, 2020 (6:38 pm)

I am going to “continue to observe” the long needed fix for Pier 18, which has been reported as a problem by SDOT since 2013 which is the year they first decided to “continue to observe” until they changed their minds and decided to fix. Ahh . . . deferred maintenance always catches up to you.

Chemist October 26, 2020 (7:08 pm)

That 2013 date is due to 2013 being the first report SDOT shared. It’s possible the pier 18 bearing was CTO even prior.

Smittytheclown October 27, 2020 (6:49 am)

What’s the debate? Had they been regularly monitoring and told us 8 months ago (pre closure) that it would cost 47 million to keep the bridge from shutting down and also extend its lifespan 40 years we would have written the check in a heartbeat. This is the biggest no brainer of all time.

Matt P October 27, 2020 (3:36 pm)

No Kidding. There are 35k households in West Seattle roughly, so that’s $1350 per household. I would have gladly whipped out my checkbook and paid twice that much and my wife and I have been work at home since the pandemic started.
- Smittytheclown October 27, 2020 (7:05 pm)
  
  Exactly. Not to mention spreading the payments out over a 30 year bond.I would have paid it up front too. This is so stupid.

Ursula October 28, 2020 (10:30 am)

I had asked at Bridge meetings how long pier 18 had been a “problem” and was laughed at and given no answer. Happy to have the fact exposed that nothing was done since 2013 and maybe earlier. Part of our Urban Village development was to have reliable, quick transportation. It is an injustice to even question getting a bridge up and running asap, this is a fulfillment of trust of government and the social contract with WS residents and the City.

Charles Ruth October 28, 2020 (1:42 pm)

It has never really been clear about the actual cause(s) for the bridge superstructure failure. It seems like the typical response was “we are not really sure”. If that is the case, how much confidence do the bridge engineers have that the “repair” will last for the current estimate of 40 years?? There needs to be an 80% to 90% level of confidence in the proposed repair and service life for this alternative to be reasonably compared to the other replacement (partial and full) options. One additional thing; with both partial and full replacement, there are structural options to improve seismic performance of the bridge.

Sorry, comment time is over.