(West Seattle Bridge cracks in March 2020, from sdotblog.seattle.gov)

This is a notable date in West Seattle history: Four years ago today, just before 3 pm on March 23, 2020, the city announced it would shut down the high-rise West Seattle Bridge indefinitely because of safety concerns, and did so a few hours later. (Here’s our as-it-happened report on the announcement.) The bridge didn’t reopen until two and a half years later, on September 17, 2022; a pivotal moment along the way was on November 19, 2020, when then-Mayor Jenny Durkan announced the bridge would be repaired, not replaced.

Looking ahead to today’s anniversary, we asked SDOT a few questions. When was the bridge last inspected? It got an in-person inspection back in January, responded SDOT spokesperson Ethan Bergerson, and inspectors found “no notable new developments.” And it remains under continuous electronic monitoring, he adds: “There have not been any new developments since we published our one-year monitoring report this past September saying that the West Seattle Bridge remains safe and strong. The bridge is continuously monitored by an extensive and sophisticated structural-health monitoring system which allows us to detect subtle movements or any growth of existing cracks. This monitoring system runs 24/7 and automatically alerts engineers immediately of any issues that would require further inspection.” (You can read the September update here; it in turn links to this 10-page report.)

Next up, as we first reported earlier this week, is a big project for the bridge’s eastern half, the Spokane Street Viaduct, a separate structure that was not involved in the 2020-2022 closure: Resurfacing its eastbound (corrected: south) side. Bergerson says, “Construction will likely begin this summer and occur over several weekends. Once we select a contractor, we will work with them to schedule the exact dates and notify the public beforehand.” Since the project just went out to bid, it’ll be at least May before that happens.

New on the city’s bidding website: The project to resurface the eastbound lanes of the West Seattle Bridge’s eastern half, formally known as the Spokane Street Viaduct, has just gone out to bid.

(Framegrab from SDOT camera. Eastbound SSV at left, westbound at right)

Bidding opened this morning. SDOT spokesperson Ethan Bergerson tells WSB, “This project will include repaving the eastbound lanes, as well as drainage improvements and bridge deck repair on the westbound lanes.” The city got a $5 million federal grant two years ago to help cover the cost. The (corrected) eastbound (south) side of the Spokane Street Viaduct is the older side, built in the ’40s; the westbound (north) side was built in the late ’00s/early ’10s. It was closed several times for repair work during the 2 1/2-year-long full closure of the rest of the West Seattle Bridge; pothole problems have persisted on both sides, and as SDOT described it in 2022, “The existing concrete deck overlay exhibits significant signs of ‘alligator skin’ cracking and damage.” As part of preparation for this project, a “deck scan” was done in 2021. When will the SSV work start and how long will it last? TBD, says Bergerson: “Once a contractor is selected, we will work with them to determine the exact construction timeline.” It is expected to be complete by the end of the year, though, he added. Bidding is open for three weeks, so a contractor won’t be chosen for more than a month.

4:08 PM: That’s smoke, not fog, drifting over the West Seattle Bridge in our framegrab from an SDOT traffic camera near the 4th Avenue South exit. That exit is blocked off right now because of what’s logged as an “encampment fire” toward the end of the ramp. So if you’re headed for 4th any time soon, you’ll want to use 1st and surface Spokane Street instead.

4:41 PM: SFD has cleared the scene and the ramp is reopening.

Preview info here.

(Course map, from Emerald City Ride website)

The westbound West Seattle Bridge will be briefly bicycles-only one morning in May as part of the Cascade Bicycle Club‘s Emerald City Ride. This big in-city ride is returning this year for the first time since pre-pandemic 2019. It usually includes a stretch of major highway infrastructure – past examples have included the Highway 520 floating bridge and I-5 express lanes – and this year for the first time, that’ll be the high bridge. This is set for Sunday, May 5th, a 20-mile route that starts (at 7 am) and ends in the SODO Stadium District, outbound over the West Seattle Bridge and around Alki, to Fauntleroy, through Delridge, then returning over the low bridge. (See the course map here.)

We just talked to Cascade’s executive director Lee Lambert and media-relations manager Paul Tolmé about the ride plan. On the morning of the ride, they’ll close the bridge, plus southbound 99 from the stadium zone to the bridge onramp, from starting at 5:30. Riders start at 7, in waves, and bridge access closes at 8; all riders have to be off the bridge by 9, and the bridge will reopen by 9:30. Those are the only road closures – once off the bridge, Lambert says, it’s “rules of the road,” though he notes, “There’ll be a LOT of bicycles.” How many? Tolmé says they’re expecting at least 2,000 riders; Lambert says they’re capped at 4,000. In addition to the full 20-mile route, there’ll be shorter options, too, 7 to 10 miles. Registration opens next Tuesday (March 12) at 10 am.

(Image from December 2023 council-committee agenda, incorporating Google Maps photo)

Not including the Duwamish Tribe in a highly visible Native-art project barely a mile from their Longhouse would be a “systemic erasure,” the City Council’s Transportation Committee was told by tribal officials this morning.

The committee, chaired by District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka, was scheduled to be briefed and to possibly vote on the project at today’s meeting, three months after the previous membership of the committee tabled it at the request of Saka’s predecessor Lisa Herbold. At the start of the meeting, Saka announced that it would not be voted on today; then after the previous two (unrelated) agenda items ran long, he announced the art-project briefing would be tabled entirely, “possibly” to an unspecified later date.

Though this project has been in the planning stages for almost two years, it was not mentioned publicly until the agenda emerged for a committee meeting last December. The project is proposed to involve the Muckleshoot and Suquamish Tribes, sharing an estimated 15 West Seattle Bridge columns and $133,000 from the West Seattle Bridge repair/mitigation project. The Duwamish say the art project was never even mentioned to them (and the slide deck prepared for the meeting bears that out). At the committee briefing in December, SDOT countered by saying the Duwamish Tribe was involved with a different art project – but it turned out to involve the sidewalk close to the Longhouse, and, according to the tribe, was in the works long before this came to light.

(WSB photo, Council Chambers today)

At the start of the meeting, the public-comment period included more than half a dozen people telling the committee that the Duwamish Tribe should be included in the bridge-columns project. Here’s our video of the entire public-comment period (including several speakers talking about other agenda items); the first speaker, reading a statement from Duwamish Tribe chair Cecile Hansen, was Longhouse director Kristina Pearson:

Several of the Duwamish representatives who spoke said they’re being excluded because their tribe is not federally recognized, a status they’ve been fighting for years to regain. And to add insult to injury, said one speaker, the project excluding the Duwamish Tribe is in “an area that is culturally sensitive to” them.

Saka noted from the dais that he will be visiting the Duwamish Longhouse soon for a meeting; before adjourning, both he and the committee’s vice-chair, District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth, thanked the Duwamish members for coming to City Hall. She said, “You being the original caretakers of this land, when you speak, we need to listen.”

(Side note – we will cover the rest of the meeting, which focused on the Seattle Transportation Plan and a “State of the Bridges” overview, in a separate report.)

(Image from last December’s council-committee agenda, incorporating Google Maps photo)

Three months ago, outgoing City Councilmembers shelved consideration of a plan to pay the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and Suquamish Tribe $133,000 for murals on up to 15 columns under the West Seattle Bridge – a mile from the Duwamish Tribe‘s Longhouse, funded with money left over in the bridge-repair project. In response to community concerns, then-Councilmember Lisa Herbold elicited SDOT acknowledgment that there had been no outreach to the Duwamish Tribe regarding the prospective pillar art, and a Transportation Committee vote was delayed at her request. According to the agenda published this afternoon, the proposal returns this Tuesday (March 5) to the committee, now chaired by Herbold’s District 1 successor, Councilmember Rob Saka. (The committee’s previous chair, Alex Pedersen, like Herbold, chose not to run for re-election last year.) Three of the committee’s other four members are new to the council as well.

Nothing in the agenda materials for Tuesday’s meeting indicates anything has changed since the December committee meeting at which the vote was postponed. In response to concerns about not involving the Duwamish Tribe in this project, SDOT reps mentioned at the December meeting that the Duwamish would be involved in a different art project closer to the Longhouse. They had few details to offer when we followed up at the time; that project has since been revealed to involve a stretch of sidewalk. Here’s an image the tribe included in an email to its members regarding a planning event for the sidewalk project:

Tuesday’s committee meeting is at 9:30 am at City Hall; it’ll include public comment, in person and remote, and the agenda explains how to participate. Other scheduled topics include an update on the newly released Seattle Transportation Plan and a “State of the Bridges” briefing.

11:36 PM: Police are blocking all lanes of the eastbound West Seattle Bridge except the exit lane to northbound 99, because of what so far appears to be a one-vehicle crash, with the driver apparently having walked away from the scene – possibly westbound in the eastbound lanes.

12:07 AM: Officers just told dispatch that all lanes on the bridge have reopened. The mystery of the driver hasn’t been solved yet; officers went to the South Seattle residence of the vehicle’s registered owner but reported back that no one answered the door. (Added: The vehicle is a Hyundai Sonata.)

As announced last month, District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka is chairing the Transportation Committee – so you might not be surprised to hear he’s just hired a former top-level SDOT manager to join his staff. You might even recognize her: Heather Marx was the most visible SDOT manager during the 2020-2022 West Seattle Bridge closure, as the head of the bridge-stabilization-and-repair program. So visible, that her name appears in WSB archives 105 times – although the first few mentions are from her pre-bridge role as Downtown Mobility Director during the Highway 99 viaduct-to-tunnel project. Most recently, Marx has been working at the Seattle Police Department. And now she’s Policy Adviser for Councilmember Saka, who announced this in his latest newsletter, sent this afternoon. From the announcement:

Heather brings 25 years of city policy experience to the role, with a particular focus on transportation. Before joining our team, Heather served as Strategic Initiatives Director at the Seattle Police Department, and as the Program Director for Seattle Department of Transportation’s West Seattle Bridge Safety Program. While at SDOT, she led the Department’s efforts to successfully reopen the West Seattle Bridge. She brings a wealth of policy expertise in the critically important issue areas of public safety and transportation. Heather is a long-time resident of District 1 where she raised two children in Seattle Public Schools and lives in the Fauntleroy neighborhood with her husband.

Marx joins Councilmember Saka’s two previously announced staffers, Chief of Staff Elaine Ikoma Ko and District Relations Director/Scheduler Leyla Gheisar. You can see Saka’s full newsletter here.

Police were dispatched to this crash on the westbound West Seattle Bridge right after we received this photo from a texter, who describes the location as “just before 99 onramp.” No report of injuries so far.

Thanks for the tips. Multiple readers have messaged about another crash near Walking On Logs, toward the southwest end of the West Seattle Bridge. One lane is reported to be blocked. No major backup reported. The SFD response closed fairly quickly, which indicates no major injuries either.

4:27 PM: Thanks for the tips. Flag-waving demonstrators are blocking the westbound lanes of the West Seattle Bridge at the crest. The only image we have so far is from a distance but it appears to be the Palestinian flag:

4:37 PM: It may have been a short-lived demonstration – 911 dispatch reports traffic is moving again. We can’t independently verify via traffic cameras as the video feeds remain broken (SDOT has no ETA on a repair). One reader says the demonstrators were in cars, not on foot.

(Added: Photo texted by Aaron)

4:42 PM: We’ve verified from the Fauntleroy end of the bridge that traffic is moving again, no further sign of the flag-wavers.

12:42 AM: Emergency responders are arriving at a two-car crash on the eastbound bridge, not far from the Fauntleroy entrance, and police are planning to block the eastbound bridge at that entrance shortly. A texter reports that “one car is spun around.”

12:52 AM: One eastbound lane is now opened. Police are telling dispatch that SDOT will have to reset the jersey barriers at the crash scene.

(Image from council-committee agenda, incorporating Google Maps photo)

Last night we previewed an item on today’s agenda for the Seattle City Council Transportation and Public Utilities Committee meeting (which just concluded after more than 2 1/2 hours), a plan to pay the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and Suquamish Tribe $133,000 for murals on up to 15 columns under the West Seattle Bridge – a mile from the Duwamish Tribe‘s Longhouse. At the request of District 1 Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who noted public comments voicing concern, the committee delayed a vote until it reconvenes next year (by which time both Herbold and the committee’s chair Councilmember Alex Pedersen will have left office). SDOT acknowledged there had been no “outreach” to the Duwamish Tribe on the bridge-columns project during the year and a half it’s been in the works, but said the Duwamish are involved with a separate public-art project planned near the Longhouse. (We’re following up to get more information on that and will update this story with whatever we learn.)

A WSB reader texted:

Wondering if you might do a story on the new traffic violation cams on the high bridge – focusing on bus lane violators. I commute daily and take the 1st Ave exit right after the 99 exit and I wait until the last set of red painted lines that say BUS ONLY but I got a cautionary warning letter for this as a traffic violation . In the future the fine will be $75. Can you investigate where/ when it is legal to move over To the far right lane to exit on first?

It’s been three months since the last announcement about the new camera enforcement – when SDOT said in early September that installation was imminent. So first we asked SDOT if the camera – part of a “pilot” program also involving other locations in the city – was indeed up and running and citing. Yes: “The transit lane traffic safety camera on the West Seattle Bridge (high bridge), just east of State Route 99, has been activated. The first time someone is caught in a violation, they will be mailed a warning letter. For any new violations after that, they will be mailed a $75 ticket.”

How many warnings/tickets? SDOT refused to say:

This camera is part of an ongoing pilot program intended to evaluate the effectiveness of automated traffic safety camera enforcement in transit only lanes. The draft report on the effectiveness of the program will be submitted to the State Legislature in July 2024 and will also be available publicly at that time.

To get a report sooner, the spokesperson replied, we’d have to file a public-disclosure request.

To the original texter’s question, about the exact location to avoid if you don’t want to be cited: “The entire bus lane, which begins approximately 0.5 miles west of the exit to NB SR99, is restricted to buses only. The camera is located east of the exit to NB SR99. Drivers taking the exit to NB SR99 will not be impacted by the camera.” Here’s the design-document excerpt that SDOT sent us for a similar question pre-installation, showing the enforcement zone in yellow-green:

Meantime, no hint yet of when newly authorized camera types – like “racing” – might be installed, but we’re continuing to follow up.

5:51 PM: Thanks for the tips. The bridge will be closed for a short time at the eastbound entrance by Fauntleroy/35th while SDOT resets barriers after an earlier crash.

5:56 PM: Reopened. No serious injuries reported in the crash.

(Screengrab from SDOT camera)

2:08 AM: Police are at the scene of a two-car crash on the eastbound West Seattle Bridge offramp to 99. One car flipped. They don’t know who was driving either car because everybody got out and left in another vehicle. The two were racing, according to at least one 911 caller. One car is a white 2016 Kia Soul, not (yet) reported stolen (police are going to the Alki address where it’s registered to see); the other was only described as a rental with Florida plates and extensive ignition damage. Tow trucks have been called for both. Until they’re cleared, the ramp is inaccessible.

2:31 AM: The officer who went to check with the Soul’s owner just reported back to dispatch that it was indeed a not-yet-reported stolen car. (It’s the car that flipped.)

7:47 PM: Two lanes of the westbound West Seattle Bridge are blocked by an emergency response after a collision described as a driver hitting a man who was either standing or walking on the bridge. This was initially reported to have happened on the Spokane Street Viaduct section of the bridge, near the 1st Avenue S. ramp.

7:55 PM: From the traffic camera showing the response, it appears this happened further east on the SSV.

8:31 PM: The scene has cleared. We’re checking with SFD regarding the person who was reported to have been hit.

9:42 PM: SFD tells us the man who was hit is 30 years old and was in stable condition when taken to the hospital.

Another one-car crash tonight toward the southwest (Fauntleroy) end of the westbound West Seattle Bridge, near the remaining Walking On Logs sculptures. No injuries reported. SDOT was called to reset the pushed-out-of-position barrier(s) into which the driver crashed.

Two people have texted us in the past few minutes about a dog on the upper bridge, near the eastbound side’s Delridge onramp. One described it as “looks very afraid, has a collar, white and brown, shorter hair.” As we advised that texter, this is definitely something to report to 911 – hazard to traffic (not to mention the dog).

We received this notice on behalf of a project described only as “a movie,” working with the city to get a permit to film on the West Seattle Bridge one week from today:

10/26, weather and permit pending: We will have a convoy of cars led by Seattle Police Officers that will escort a car that is rigged with several camera systems. We will not be holding traffic whatsoever but are required to have an escort to ensure the safety of our crew and all drivers on the bridge. We will start sometime after 10 am till 2 pm and do one to four runs on the bridge, westbound and eastbound. Again, our permits are pending, and chasing the weather this time of year can be very tricky.

The most-recent such filming for which we got an early alert was one year ago.

Another one-car crash toward the west end of the westbound West Seattle Bridge. The driver was apparently unhurt but their Jeep Liberty is reported to be partly blocking traffic as it approaches the Fauntleroy end of the bridge. One caller, according to dispatch, reported the vehicle had flipped; this is out of camera range so we haven’t confirmed that.

Thanks to CJ for the photo. For the second time today, SFD and SPD have responded to a crash near the southwest end of the westbound West Seattle Bridge. This, too, was reported as a single-vehicle crash, no major injuries.