(Photos on the bridge deck by WSB’s Patrick Sand)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

When the West Seattle Bridge reopens, you’ll notice some changes.

That’s part of what we talked about with project leaders from SDOT, repair contractor Kraemer North America, and repair designers/consultants WSP during a visit to the the bridge today.

As we reported earlier today, SDOT expects to announce the reopening date this Thursday. In the meantime, the bridge is full of activity and materials that are part of the final stages of work. As we concluded our visit this afternoon and traveled back to the west entrance, we recorded this video to show you part of what we saw:

Along with the final phase of strengthening – applying more carbon-fiber wrap now that the post-tensioning steel cables are in and tightened – work includes getting the bridge back to a service-suitable state after almost two and a half years of closure. That includes signage, like what’s shown above, and what’s coming to new overhead structures like this:

On the bridge’s deck, new concrete panels have been poured in dozens of spots to improve the bridge surface. On the so-called Nucor curve near the west end, a micro-silica overlay is being installed, with grooves atop it, to prevent the slipping and sliding so common in that spot in the past. A subcontractor crew was working toward the west end today to seal some of the bridge joints, and to set up a rail for a machine that’ll be used as the paving continues. All along the bridge, equipment, materials, and access points were in evidence.

In a few weeks, demobilization work will include bringing down the two platforms that have been used for work on the underside of the bridge – tentatively scheduled for removal the weekends of August 20th and August 27th, according to Kraemer’s project manager Adam Dour (who delivered this detailed briefing last December).

Scaffolding atop the bridge marks those platforms’ sites, and notches in the bridge deck that have been part of the platform operation remain to be filled in.

Along with the signs, another difference you’ll notice when the bridge reopens – the inside westbound shoulder is widening to 12 feet, so the westbound lanes will shift toward the outside. No changes in number of, or uses of, the bridge lanes – just that shoulder widening. Toward the edge of the westbound lanes today, meantime, crew members were replacing cables in the bridge’s streetlights, frequently plagued by outages pre-closure:

Another material also on view today – stacks of yellow fiberglass girders:

These will be used to build inspection platforms inside the bridge. And the final run-up to reopening will include a lot of inspection and observation, particularly during the load testing, when trucks – like a double-trailer dump truck, filled with gravel – will be driven and parked on the bridge at strategic spots to ensure it responds as expected.

Here’s what it looked like inside the bridge today (thanks to Tim Durkan for the interior photos) – including some of the 45 miles of steel cables now in place to strengthen the bridge:

Crews are working inside and out, two shifts a day, six days a week. Other notes from our visit:

Last month, we reported that SDOT was planning a community celebration to say thanks. Today, Marx told us that idea has been scrapped – in recent outreach, she said, SDOT reps heard over and over that all community members wanted was for the bridge to be reopened. They do plan a news-media briefing “a couple days before the bridge reopens” -that event will not be on the bridge, but on a port site with the bridge as a backdrop. First, we expect to hear the reopening date Thursday – and when that day arrives, SDOT has said, they expect to open the bridge fully, not incrementally. And as we’ve reported multiple times before, the low-bridge restrictions will end once the high bridge is open – that was reiterated today too.

(One of the worker access points on the westbound side)

We’re just back from a visit to the 29-months-closed West Seattle Bridge as repair work gets closer to completion. One headline from our conversations there with reps from SDOT and contractor Kraemer North America: If all goes well, SDOT expects to announce the bridge reopening date this Thursday (August 11th). As bridge project director Heather Marx had reiterated to us just last week – and she repeated it today – they remain on target to reopen “the week of September 12th,” and they had long said they’d provide a specific date with 30 days’ notice. But there’s a lot still to be done, and especially in light of concrete drivers’ recent contract vote, Marx says they will remain nervous until the last concrete pour – and several more remain. We’re working on a full report for tonight with everything we saw and heard on the bridge, but one notable part of the work that was happening today – they’re putting an extra overlay on the “Nucor curve” of the bridge’s westernmost stretch, microsilica – topped by grooving – to try to reduce that stretch’s conducivity to crashes in wet weather. Current work also involves signage – some new ones are already in view, and they’re not exact replicas of the old ones. More later.