UPDATE: West Seattle low bridge trouble for third straight evening, after SDOT answered inquiry about previous two times

| Transportation | West Seattle news

(SDOT camera screenshot during Wednesday night closure)

ORIGINAL REPORT, 3:53 PM: After two breakdowns in two days, SDOT says they know what went wrong with the West Seattle “low bridge” (aka the Spokane Street Swing Bridge) and are making plans to fix it. We inquired yesterday about the Wednesday evening trouble, and added on an inquiry about last night before receiving this response from SDOT covering both:

This week, there have been two unexpected closures of the West Seattle Low Bridge (also known as the Spokane St Swing Bridge) due to mechanical issues with the vehicle gate on the western side of the bridge. The gates did not respond to remote commands from the control tower.

We have plans to replace these gates and are working to schedule the installation. This work will likely require the bridge to be closed to motor vehicles and will take place during the weekend. We will announce the dates of construction once they are determined.

The low bridge has gone through a variety of maintenance and repair work in recent years, most recently during a May closure.

UPDATE, 5:51 PM: Just heard via police radio that it’s down for a THIRD straight night, though bicycles and pedestrians are being let through, vehicle gatesare down.

9:59 PM: According to @sdottraffic, it was back in operation as of shortly after 7 pm.

22blades July 31, 2026 (4:20 pm)

It seems to have happened before. I’ve been stuck on the west side a couple times only to watch bikes & pedestrians going across. This was at least a couple weeks ago. At first, it was disconcerting to watch people going across the red light. Not something you want people to get used to doing.

mrsshaw July 31, 2026 (4:24 pm)

“The gates did not respond to remote commands from the control tower.” Just Like HAL?

22blades July 31, 2026 (5:41 pm)

Broken again at 5:40 pm. People turning around.

22blades July 31, 2026 (5:44 pm)

WSB July 31, 2026 (5:56 pm)

Reply

Yup, just heard that. Added above.
- 22blades July 31, 2026 (6:05 pm)
  
  Reply
  
  As always, thank you for the reporting!

Annoyed July 31, 2026 (6:08 pm)

This has been an ongoing issue for almost a year. This is not the western gate but the eastern one, the one the drunk driver ran into and SDOT has just ignored it. This has been an ongoing issue where things will happen to our bridges and never get fixed or the fix will be delayed due to “supply chain issues” or some other BS excuse. In all honesty, the bridge should be put out of commission for an extended period of time to address these issues but SDOT will just kick the can down the road and continue to ignore the problems.

Marty2 July 31, 2026 (6:21 pm)

This is beginning to look like Groundhog Day.

North Admiral Cyclist August 1, 2026 (6:03 am)

The bridge is 35 years old. With two back-to-back billion dollar transportation levies, why is SDOT only reactive, and not proactive to maintaining our infrastructure?