(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.
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