WEST SEATTLE BRIDGE: Community Task Force gets high, low updates tomorrow

(SDOT camera, 11:26 am today)

Updates on the high and low bridges are expected when the West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force meets tomorrow afternoon (Thursday, April 8th). When the CTF last met on March 10th (WSB coverage here), SDOT announced it had opened the bid process for prospective contractors to work on both bridges; the window for applications ends next Monday (April 12th). There was also a promise they would be working out details for increased low-bridge access, particularly the issue of how to allow people to use the low bridge to get to and from life-saving medical treatments on the other side of the water. Tomorrow’s meeting starts at 4 pm and will be streamed live via YouTube; here’s the link.

HarborIslandWorker April 7, 2021 (2:20 pm)

This should be interesting 🤔 I hope Harbor Island employers did the survey and got the information that SDOT wanted it’s time that Harbor Island workers that live in West Seattle get their normal route back….. no reason we should’ve been left out of this in the first place

Glen Swangren April 8, 2021 (6:58 pm)

I worked for 3 years on harbor island shipyards Lockheed and Todd. Lived in west Seattle on 31st. And went to south Seattle college. Was a fun time for me.

vee April 7, 2021 (4:12 pm)

Can they please address hours change from 6 am and 8pm- would help a lot

Brian April 8, 2021 (2:07 am)

Amen. -Also hoping before 6 a.m./after 8 p.m. general traffic can be enacted across the low span without degrading current qualified traffic during the expanded time envelope.

SumGuy April 7, 2021 (8:40 pm)

It would really be nice if they thought about opening the lower bridge to 4-person carpools and seeing where were at, and also same re Vee “open to all 8pm-6am”

Smittytheclown April 8, 2021 (6:08 am)

Please ask for definitive proof that emergency vehicles cannot transit if both directions are full of traffic. The math does not add up! Plenty of room for vehicles to pull over to the side and make room. It’s a lazy decision to restrict traffic for this reason. If the “real” reason is volume/weight just say so!

Sillygoose April 8, 2021 (10:44 am)

Every time I see a photo like this of the bridge empty I get so infuriated that we cant use it. We spend hours of extra time trying to make it to our appointments on time, patronize downtown establishments etc, yet the city will not open up this low bridge to vehicle use other than semi’s and emergency or the longshoremen who were given passes!! At least open it up on Sundays for all to use this is getting ridiculous!!

reed April 8, 2021 (12:05 pm)

You can use it, bicycles or walking are all viable options.

Sparky April 8, 2021 (12:58 pm)

What I can’t figure out about the low bridge is why both directions are treated the same. It seems that it would be easier to accommodate east-bound traffic than westbound since there is only one light on the east end of the bridge that should remain green for a long time given the lack of crossing traffic. Allowing this route as an way out of West Seattle would help alleviate outbound traffic at the bottom of Boeing Hill and make that intersection work better even if the restrictions westbound remained in place.

Another thought is to give everybody in West Seattle a set number of swing bridge passes you could use to waive off the crossing tickets. Everybody could then choose when they wanted to use their pass. Or they could sell them if they would rather have the cash. A win all the way around and gets around the current process of handing them out to people with political influence.

And why hasn’t SDOT figured out how to widen the 5-way intersection at Chelan Cafe and the one at the bottom of Boeing Hill to move traffic through the bottlenecks more efficiently? There is no reason that key directions be limited to one lane of through traffic given the space available.They must be too busy planting trees in Georgetown to do some real work.

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