(July photo sent by John Bennett)
You might have forgotten, but the concrete drivers’ strike never really ended – drivers just decided to go back to work in April while continuing to negotiate, and that enabled a restart of stalled aspects of the West Seattle Bridge repairs. Then this week, a reminder that the drivers are still working without a contract – the drivers, represented by Teamsters Union Local 174, voted down the newest contract proposal this week. The union called it “subpar” but so far has not announced another work stoppage, Still, the prospect is certainly a source of concern. With less than six weeks to go until the week that SDOT is hoping to reopen the bridge – the week of September 12th – how much concrete is still needed, and for what? we asked SDOT spokesperson Ethan Bergerson. Reply: “The remaining concrete work to pave the bridge deck and parts of the Spokane St Viaduct and Fauntleroy Expressway leading to the bridge requires about 450 cubic yards of concrete over the coming weeks.” We asked what’s being done to try to avoid having that interrupted. Bergerson said, “Anticipating potential risks and making contingency plans for unexpected factors beyond our control has always been critical to the West Seattle Bridge project. Our construction contractor is currently working with concrete suppliers to attempt to speed up the concrete delivery timeline. We are trying to order as much concrete as we can, as soon as possible.” For now, though, as reported here last week, “the week of September 12th” remains the estimate, with a promise that we’ll get a more specific date when they’re 30 days out.
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