(SDOT photo, April 5th)
One week ago today, SDOT announced that the West Seattle Bridge repair project finally had started receiving concrete again. The initial delivery, SDOT said, was going toward expansion-joint work, part of the maintenance that’s scheduled to be done before the bridge reopens to traffic. The deliveries were made possible by the decision of some concrete drivers to return to work though their labor dispute with suppliers hadn’t been resolved; in the past week, the strikers expanded that decision, announcing they would all return to work while negotiations continued. So today, we asked SDOT what’s happened since those first deliveries last Tuesday, particularly whether they’ve started receiving concrete for the post-tensioning (strengthening) that’s a key part of the repairs. Spokesperson Ethan Bergerson tells WSB, “We expect to begin receiving structural concrete for the post-tensioning system this weekend. We’re pleased that the concrete work is moving forward as fast as possible, given the concrete supplier’s delivery constraints. In total, the project needs 245 cubic yards (about 30 truckloads) of structural concrete for the post-tensioning system. Last week, 2 truckloads of non-structural concrete were delivered for the expansion joints.” SDOT has said they won’t be able to offer a revised reopening timeline until the last of that concrete is poured. We’re likely to get an update next week when the West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force meets at 4 pm Thursday, April 21st.
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