By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

For the second time in a little over two weeks, we were back up on the 2 1/2-years-closed West Seattle Bridge today,

Last time, SDOT and repair contractor Kraemer North America hosted WSB and The Seattle Times. This time, it was an open-invitation tour for media from around the metro area.

First, let’s get this out of the way: SDOT says they’re still on track to reopen the bridge Sunday, September 18th, the date announced two weeks ago. When on September 18th? Bridge project director Heather Marx says they haven’t finalized all the logistics yet but probably sometime “early in the morning” that Sunday, they’ll just open the gates and let traffic flow on. No, she reiterated, the bridge will not be reopened in phases – when they open it, the plan to open all lanes.

Even now, work is “winding down.” The carbon-fiber wrapping – part of strengthening the bridge – was finished yesterday. That means Kraemer NA will be able to go ahead with removing the remaining beneath-the-bridge suspended platforms this weekend (the first two came down last Saturday, as covered here). That’ll probably span both days this weekend because the logistics involve the railroad tracks under the bridge, explained Kraemer’s bridge project manager Adam Dour. Also remaining: About 40 yards of concrete work, including filling the holes that were used for suspending and moving the platforms.

Despite concrete drivers’ recent rejection of a contract offer, they’ve had no supply challenges, Marx said. Meantime, a variety of other tasks are under way to get the bridge ready for use.

Today’s discussion also covered ground we covered in our report two weeks ago – including the load testing that’ll happen before the bridge gets final clearance for reopening, But keep in mind, 80 percent of the weight on the bridge, even when open, is generated by the bridge itself, And Marx stressed that their monitoring continues to show the bridge reacting exactly as predicted. She gave a 15-minute briefing/Q&A at the start of the tour, along with Kraemer’s Dour and bridge engineer of record Greg Banks from consultants WSP – here’s our video of that in its entirety;

While “demobilization” on the bridge is necessary before it can be reopened safely to traffic, days if not weeks of work will remain on the routes leading to and from the bridge – removing detour signs, for example, will be a priority – so that the neighborhoods that have borne the burden of extra traffic these past two and a half years will have a chance, finally, at relief.

Remember the West Seattle Bridge reopening design contest won by Susie Perry‘s “Reunited”? Now you can get it on a T-shirt.

The commemorative T-shirt is available in short sleeves or long sleeves, with a short-sleeve kids’ option, in a variety of sizes. Order by this Friday so your shirt(s) can be available in the first batch that’ll be ready for pickup at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW) September 9th, 10th, 11th (11 am-2 pm). Organizers explain, “Proceeds from the shirt sales will go back into the West Seattle community, distributed by two local nonprofit organizations: the West Seattle Junction Association and the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce.” If you’re not ready to buy one now, they are expecting to order another batch in the third week of September and say other options such as a hoodie version might be available then, depending on how demand goes in the first wave. To order a T-shirt now, just go here.

As we continue counting down to the expected reopening of the West Seattle Bridge on Sunday, September 18th – now less than four weeks away – we’re checking on various questions readers have asked. This one’s been answered before but people are still asking, so we re-checked with Metro: Yes, the buses that formerly used the high bridge will be back on it once it re-opens; Metro’s fall “service change” is happening on Saturday, September 17th, the day before the scheduled reopening, so they’ll be issuing new timetables anyway. Per Metro spokesperson Elaine Porterfield, “Metro will return routes 21, 21X, 50, 55, 56, 57, 120, 125, and C Line to the High Bridge immediately upon reopening. Our fall service change reflects this pathway change. Routes 118 and 119 that previously traveled on the High Bridge will remain intra-Vashon Island routes.” (As for the bridge itself, if you missed our Saturday coverage, crews brought down the first of the work platforms; the rest are scheduled for removal next weekend.)

(WSB photos/video unless otherwise credited)
Our video above shows five of the six minutes it took to bring down the first of the under-bridge work platforms around 8:30 this morning. Repair contractor Kraemer NA‘s project manager told us a week and a half ago that the first platforms would likely be removed this weekend, and that’s what’s happening.

The platforms being removed this weekend – looks like one but it’s in two parts – comprise the western set; the eastern platforms are expected to be brought down next weekend, with trickier logistics because those are over railroad tracks.

(Photo sent by James Thornton)

We’re told these will be disassembled on site, probably by tonight.

Other bridge work happening right now includes cleaning the deck of the Fauntleroy end – where there’s been pavement repair/resurfacing – to prepare for permanent restriping. The bridge’s scheduled reopening date, after a closure of nearly 2 1/2 years, remains September 18th – four weeks from tomorrow.

One week ago, SDOT announced September 18th as the expected reopening date for the West Seattle Bridge – provided all goes as planned. So we asked today: Still on schedule? Replied SDOT spokesperson Ethan Bergerson, “Yes, we are still on track to reopen the bridge on September 18.” We also asked if repair contractor Kraemer NA is still ready to lower one of the two under-the-bridge work platforms this weekend, as we learned during a visit to the bridge work zone last week. For that too, the answer is yes, probably Saturday, no exact time yet. Bergerson adds, “We are also very close to completing the carbon fiber wrapping and epoxy injection work, and expect this to be completed by next week.”

SIDE NOTE: Checking the archives – on this date last year, a D.C. delegation including Sen. Maria Cantwell visited the bridge as crews were preparing for the final repairs.

(WSB photo, West Seattle Bridge work platform, late July)

When SDOT announced last week that the West Seattle Bridge is expected to reopen Sunday, September 18th, WSB commenters had some follow-up questions. Among them: Will there be a weight restriction on the bridge? We asked, and today we got the answer: No. SDOT spokesperson Ethan Bergerson says, “We are not planning any weight restrictions for vehicles on the bridge. Vehicles would still need to follow the statewide laws governing maximum weight limits to drive on public roads.” (Find those here.) There are weight-limit signs on the bridge now, as we noticed when visiting last Tuesday, but Bergerson explains that they “were placed for construction crews before the post-tensioning work was completed. Now that that work is done, the bridge is much stronger and those signs will be removed by the time the bridge opens.” He also reiterated the plan – noted again in our report last week – for load testing before the bridge reopens, “in which we will drive heavy equipment over the bridge to simulate traffic and let engineers monitor the structure’s response in real-time and confirm that the repairs are working as expected.” If the closure ends on September 18th as currently planned, that’ll be just five days short of 2 1/2 years since its sudden closure on March 23, 2020.

(WSB photo, Tuesday, looking west at part of the bridge repair-work zone)

Two months ago, SDOT announced it expected to reopen the West Seattle Bridge “the week of September 12th.” (That was a revision from the previous “midyear” estimate, first cited in early 2021.) Since the “week of September 12th” announcement, they’ve stuck to that projected timeframe, with a promise that they’d get specific with about a month’s notice.

This morning, they’ve finally announced a specific date: Sunday, September 18th, which will be five days short of exactly 2 1/2 years since the bridge’s sudden closure on March 23, 2020 because of growing cracks. Today’s announcement was foreshadowed two days ago, when we toured the repair-work zone atop the bridge with SDOT and learned from project director Heather Marx that this would be the day they’d announce a date. Today’s announcement also contains this caveat regarding the September 18th reopening date: “This will depend on the successful completion of remaining work, including finishing epoxy injections, carbon fiber wrapping, paving, safety inspection platform installation, and robust safety testing.”

(Photo by Mike Burns, looking north from Andover foot/bike overpass)

(Our Tuesday report includes details of what’s happening now and what’s yet to come.) Today’s announcement (read it in full here) also notes, as has been reported multiple times, “All restrictions on the Spokane St. Swing Bridge (also known as the West Seattle low bridge) will end on the same day” that the high bridge reopens.

(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.

(File photo)

In our Monday conversation with SDOT‘s West Seattle Bridge project director Heather Marx, which brought first word of the high-bridge repair milestone, we also asked about the low-bridge work. You might recall that the same contract with Kraemer North America includes work on the low bridge. What they’re focusing on right now, Marx said, is reinforcement of the bridge – with work similar to what’s happening with the high bridge, epoxy injection into cracks and carbon-fiber wrapping. That’s separate from the other projects planned for the low bridge. Those include replacement of the communication system and routing cables under the Duwamish River, boring mini-tunnels (4″ wide) to thread the cables beneath the river. Taurus Power & Controls, Inc. is the contractor chosen for that work. SDOT is also replacing the bridge’s hydraulic pump/cylinders, and addressing electrical problems that led to recent trouble rendering the bridge inoperable for a while. “By the end of the year, the low bridge should be good,” Marx summarized. (More detail on the projects are on this city webpage.)

And just in case you needed to hear it again, yes, Marx reiterated, the low-bridge restrictions will be lifted as soon as the high bridge reopens. So where will those enforcement cameras be redeployed? Not decided yet. Since state law allows transit-lane camera enforcement, might the cameras be redirected up there? Not currently planned but not out of the question.

(Added: SDOT photo)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

2:05 PM: The West Seattle Bridge is still on track to reopen in mid-September, and toward that, SDOT has just announced a “major milestone” in bridge repairs – the “post-tensioning” steel cables to strengthen the bridge have been tightened to 100 percent, and the bridge has reacted the way engineers’ calculations have predicted it should. We first learned this in a conversation just concluded with bridge project director Heather Marx, after requesting an interview for an update on the repair work. She says the milestone was reached over the weekend. It’s not the last significant part of the repair work – epoxy injection and carbon-fiber wrapping continues – but it’s a big one. The project remains on schedule for the bridge to reopen “the week of September 12th,” and Marx reiterates that when they have 30 days to go, they’ll announce a more specific date. More info – including other updates from our conversation – coming up.

ADDED 2:29 PM: A bit more technical explanation on the milestone – monitoring installed on the bridge include “instruments that tell us the shape of the bridge,” Marx explains, and engineers calculated what that shape should be when the post-tension is at 100 percent – so it was a big sigh of relief when they got to 100 percent and that shape is exactly what resulted. The tensioning is done with jacks that “pull (the steel cables) from both sides,” Marx explains. Email updates at the end of last week mentioned that they had reached 20 percent, and Marx says that was an important point along the way, to be sure it was going to work – “a quality-control moment.”

So what remains to be done to reopen the 28-months-closed bridge? After the aforementioned final epoxy injections and carbon-fiber wrapping – Phase 4, if you’re keeping track – the CFR has to cure, the work platforms will be removed, and load testing will happen – “running a truck at specific weight, specific speed, back and forth” on the bridge, along with other inspections. After all that, deck restoration – all those notches in the concrete for the work platforms, for example – and demobilization, getting the work crews and equipment off the bridge, will follow. (They’re already doing some concrete repairs now – 60 panels in the bridge deck are planned for replacement, and as of a week ago, Marx says, about 25 are completed.)

The fact they’ve passed the major milestone of full post-tensioning doesn’t mean it’s all coasting from here, Marx cautions – “at the end of the project, the (possibility) of something to go wrong unexpectedly stays at the same rate, so it’s an anxious time.” But aside from the concrete delay, they haven’t experienced any other major holdups lately, she said – there is a cement shortage right now but they’ve been able to work around it with suppliers.

We’d heard recently that SDOT was not giving permission for a run/walk/ride on the bridge, one of the ideas that a community coalition had been pursuing, so we asked about that. Marx said they just didn’t want to run the risk that an event would be planned and the bridge would be ready to open sooner but they’d have to hold the closure for an event – SDOT had long said that once it’s ready to open, they would not let anything delay it for a moment. So, we asked, is there a chance that you might announce at the 30-day point “the bridge will open September X’ and then discover as September X approaches that it’s ready to go a day (or more) earlier? Marx said that’s a possibility, but they expect the 30-days-notice date to be as precise as possible. But “the general vibe is (to open) as soon as the bridge is available.”

All this is not to say there won’t be some kind of event related to the reopening; Marx says SDOT is planning one to thank the community for what it’s endured. Free food that the city will buy from local restaurants, and she’ll be there helping serve it. It’s not a celebration of SDOT, she stresses, as they realize “the bridge is ours and it’s broken.”

We talked with Marx about the low-bridge work; more on that separately later.

(SDOT camera image, eastbound Spokane St. Viaduct lanes at left)

You might recall that SDOT has closed the eastbound Spokane Street Viaduct -that’s the continuation of the West Seattle Bridge east of Highway 99 – a few times this year for pothole repair. Before the first closure, we reported on SDOT’s big-picture plans, pursuing grant funding for more-extensive repair. Today, the city announced that grant has been secured – one of three city bridges to each get at least $4.5 million “from the Federal Highway Administration Bridge Improvement Program, which is funded in part by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and then passed to WSDOT‘s Local Bridge Program,” and on down to the city from there. The announcement said only that the Spokane Street Viaduct’s $5 million grant would be used for “repairs to the existing deck,” so we asked SDOT for a few more details about what would be done and when. Spokesperson Mariam Ali‘s reply:

The federal funding is to support the replacement of the overlay for the south half of the bridge that carries the eastbound lanes of traffic. The existing concrete deck overlay exhibits significant signs of “alligator skin” cracking and damage. The project will replace the existing overlay and fix any concrete deck distress. We are currently in the design phase for this project and have not yet determined the construction timeline, which would likely occur in the next few years.

The eastbound (south) side of the SSV is its older section – the westbound (north) side includes what was built a decade ago. The other two city bridges getting federal grants announced today are the Jose Rizal Bridge to Beacon Hill ($5 million for paint) and the 15th/Leary bridge in Ballard ($4.5 million for earthquake safety).

SDOT says the West Seattle Bridge remains on track to reopen the week of September 12th, as announced almost six weeks ago. If you’re on the SDOT mailing list for the bridge and/or City Councilmember Lisa Herbold‘s newsletter list, you’ve probably seen the Friday updates on what’s been happening with bridge work. The last paragraph of last Friday’s SDOT update caught our attention:

… As we move through these final phases of repairs, we continuously inspect the bridge and check our work. Earlier this month during a routine crack inspection, we discovered a spall area that was about 2 by 9 feet. Spalling is when a part of the concrete surface naturally weathers, chips or breaks away. After looking into the spall, it’s clear that it is not related to the issues that are currently being repaired and it does not indicate any structural or systemic issues. We will be able to repair this spall with no impact to the bridge reopening schedule.

We asked for more information about that and photos if available. Here’s what we received:

(The spall) is the area on the exterior surface of the bridge that looks like flaking or separating concrete. To fix it, we will remove the unsound concrete, and then place forms and fill the void with grout. Once the grout has cured we will apply carbon-fiber wrapping, similar to other locations on the bridge.

As for what’s happening with the overall repairs, SDOT says crews have “finished installing the nearly 250,000 feet of steel cable needed for the new post-tensioning system inside the bridge (and) started the process of tightening the post-tensioning system by pulling on the cables with hydraulic equipment.” An additional note about current work comes from Councilmember Herbold’s Friday update, and it relates to this photo we recently received from a reader:

Herbold’s update explains:

The first two of six deck overlay pours are scheduled this week for the Fauntleroy Expressway leading up to the bridge. The first 10 of the 60 concrete panels being replaced are being poured this week as well.

The Fauntleroy Expressway is the southwest end of the bridge – and technically a separate structure.

4:12 PM: Just announced by SDOT: The West Seattle Bridge is expected to reopen in September. From the written version of the announcement made during the Community Task Force meeting:

“We expect the West Seattle Bridge to be open to traffic during the week of September 12. Sharing that today is a relief since our focus has always been on safely getting everyone back on the bridge ASAP. It’s been hard having to wait for this update, but we did need to get through the concrete work to understand exactly where we were schedule-wise. Thank you for being so patient, Seattle,” SDOT Program Manager Heather Marx said.

The disruptions caused by the regional concrete strike have had an ongoing impact on the project schedule. SDOT’s construction contractor originally planned to begin pouring concrete at the beginning of the year, but ultimately had to wait until mid-April to start pouring the structural concrete, which is essential to strengthening the bridge. Today’s announced schedule shift is about equal in length to the extra time spent waiting for concrete to arrive.

During the concrete strike, SDOT adjusted the sequence of work activities to minimize delays and keep the project moving forward in other ways. Crews never stopped working to repair and strengthen the bridge, and continued working on epoxy injections and carbon fiber wrapping during the wait for concrete.

Specialized structural concrete is an essential part of the plan to strengthen the bridge. Crews finished pouring structural concrete on May 26, 2022 and it takes 28 days for the concrete to fully harden and become strong enough to hold the 20 million pounds of force associated with the new post-tensioning system. Crews are currently in the process of installing ducts and threading steel cables through the concrete blocks, but must wait for the concrete to finish hardening before they can tighten these cables to strengthen the bridge and prevent future cracking.

Since the final structural concrete pour was completed, SDOT has worked with the construction contractor to finalize the sequence of the remaining work. SDOT will continue to hold its construction contractor accountable to meet their updated timeframe. Remaining repairs for completion of the project require challenging and complex work. SDOT released a tentative schedule today in the interest of transparency, and stressed that a project of this scale may still encounter additional unforeseen challenges outside the City’s control. SDOT will continue to provide ongoing construction updates and notify the public if the schedule changes. …

Final repairs to the bridge include three key repair procedures: epoxy injections to fill cracks, carbon-fiber wrapping to add strength, and post-tensioning with steel cables to compress the concrete.

After the post-tensioning is complete, crews will complete a final round of epoxy crack injections and carbon-fiber wrapping. They will also complete other work to prepare the bridge for reopening to traffic. This work includes replacing expansion joints, restoring the road by closing crew access holes, replacing overhead signs, replacing concrete panels east of 35th Ave SW, installing a concrete overlay on the Fauntleroy Expressway, and removing detours and adjusting traffic signals in West Seattle.

If this timeline holds, the bridge will reopen after 2 1/2 years of closure, dating back to its shutdown – with only a few hours of advance notice to the public – on March 23, 2020. Three weeks later, SDOT warned the bridge wouldn’t reopen before 2022. Seven months after that, then-Mayor Jenny Durkan announced her decision to proceed with repairing rather than replacing the bridge. Stabilization work had already been done; one year after the mayor’s announcement, “final repairs” began.

Below, our continuing coverage of the Community Task Force meeting at which today’s announcement was made:

======================

4:01 PM, MEETING BEGINS: Two years and two and a half months after the West Seattle Bridge‘s emergency closure began, its end may finally be in sight. We’re expecting news of a reopening date during the Community Task Force meeting that’s just under way – we’ll be chronicling the meeting live below this video window you can use to watch:

The meeting began with a mention of two traffic deaths in West Seattle and SODO last month. Task Force co-chair Greg Nickels then offered reflections, and thanks, noting it’s been two years since then-Mayor Jenny Durkan convened the advisory group. He talked about the group’s advocacy for ensuring people in need of life-saving medical treatment could use the low bridge – noting he and his wife Sharon Nickels needed that as she underwent months of cancer treatment.

SDOT interim director Kristen Simpson also offered gratitude to the CTF members.

4:11 PM: Bridge program director Heather Marx says the bridge will is expected to reopen “the week of September 12th.” We’ve now added the written announcement above, but will continue chronicling the meeting here. She says “structural concrete curing,” epoxy injection, carbon-fiber wrapping, post-tensioning, and other work remains. “A precise date” is expected with one month’s notice, Marx says. She warns there are still risks to even that schedule.

4:17 PM: City Councilmember Lisa Herbold asks if there’s any way the bridge could open sooner – like, before school starts. Marx says the bridge crews “are already working 60 hours a week” so adding to that isn’t feasible, but they’re looking at other options. How’s the falcon nest doing? asks CTF member Deb Barker. Fine, says Marx.

Next, CTF member Dan Austin says he’s astonished (not in a good way) by the September date. Marx tries to explain that the delay, saying, “When I heard September, my heart sank.”

4:28 PM: CTF member Anne Higuera says this would still be in the third quarter, and she’s OK with that. Marx warns that “schedules are malleable” and “this might still be something of a roller-coaster in the next few months.” Then she goes into a recap of what’s been done so far and what’s yet to be done.

4:38 PM: Now on to the low bridge, which also has repair work planned. Some closures are anticipated, no dates yet. Marx also reiterated that low-bridge restrictions will be lifted once the high bridge reopens. She also discussed the sequencing of testing and finishing touches at the end of the process. “The bridge you’re getting back is going to be better,” she insisted. … What kind of monitoring is planned in the future? she was asked. “The bridge is (now) all wired up,” Marx noted, adding “it’s a little more expensive taking care of a repaired bridge than a new bridge” – more repainting will be needed, because some of the repair components are UV-sensitive, for example. That’ll require financial support for more bridge maintenance, it was noted.

4:51 PM: Co-chair Nickels notes that this remains the last scheduled meeting of the CTF, though the bridge won’t be reopening for (at least) three months – unless something major happens. He mentions there’ll be some kind of ribboncutting before it reopens (that would be separate from the celebration that a community coalition’s been planning). Co-chair Paulina López offers her reflections too, asking CTF members to share their thoughts on how their part of the process has gone.

5:06 PM: What ensued was more a round of thanks and acknowledgments, and now the meeting is over. Bottom line again: SDOT does not expect the bridge to reopen before “the week of September 12th.”

We followed up on a discussion that erupted after we published this image from the SDOT camera atop the 27-months-closed West Seattle Bridge:

(SDOT bridge-cam image from Monday morning)

Commenters noted the missing bus-lane markings. Though we’ve reported previously that SDOT has said the lane configurations on the bridge will not change – the eastbound bus lane stays – we thought we’d re-verify. So we asked SDOT’s Mariam Ali about both the bus-lane markings and overall resurfacing plans. Her response:

The reason why the cam image showed that the high bridge eastbound pavement was missing the red bus lane was because they were removed to create a blank slate for contractor construction markings. We need to remove the old markings to install the new markings.

Markings and the bus lane do stay the same [for reopening] and will be returned as it was before the bridge closure.

For the new resurfacing before reopening of the bridge, we will be replacing 60 concrete panels from Fauntleroy Expressway to 35th. We will also be placing a concrete overlay on parts of the Fauntleroy Expressway (see attached document – the red marking).

There will be no deck rehab on the high bridge itself since Piers 15-18 decks are in good shape. We will also fix the holes on the high bridge that were made during construction.

As we’ve been noting, tomorrow’s the day the West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force is scheduled to get an update on the timeline for reopening the bridge. The meeting starts at 4 pm Thursday and will be viewable live (and on replay) here. We’ll add the full agenda when we get it. (Update: Here it is.)

(SDOT bridge-cam image from this morning)

Perhaps the biggest meeting this week is now three days away – the West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force, 4 pm Thursday (June 9th). This is the meeting at which SDOT promises “an update about the reopening timeline” for the bridge repairs, now that the structural-concrete pours have all been completed. Note that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll announce an opening date – the language they’ve used is exactly what’s quoted above, a timeline update. We don’t have the agenda yet but you’ll be able to watch the meeting live here. (Update: Here’s the agenda.)

As of tonight, the West Seattle Bridge has been closed for 800 days. Next week, SDOT promises an update on the timeline for reopening it. And once there’s a date for that, the community coalition planning a reopening celebration will know when it can happen. In the meantime, the design contest has a winner:

The artist is Susie Perry. Full details are yet to come, but the party planners expected to use the logo on a variety of swag/merchandise, including T-shirts. The community-planned-and-funded celebration is likely to include a run/walk on the bridge plus a food festival. Plans are likely to solidify afterthe aforementioned timeline update is presented at the June 9th meeting of the West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force

(SDOT photo: Structural-concrete work inside the bridge)

As first reported here on Tuesday, SDOT said the last two structural-concrete pours for the West Seattle Bridge repairs were scheduled for yesterday and today – and they’ve just announced that indeed, the last one did happen today. Here’s the announcement:

Today, our construction contractor finished pouring structural concrete inside the bridge, forming the structures that will hold new steel cables essential to strengthening the bridge. Completing this crucial project milestone marks the end of a challenging process that affected our reopening schedule.

We still expect to reopen the bridge in mid-2022 and can now work with our construction contractor to finalize the sequence of the remaining work.

Concrete work was originally scheduled to begin in February and was delayed by a concrete strike that affected practically every transportation and construction project in the Puget Sound region. We appreciate and thank the concrete suppliers and drivers who came together for the community to enable projects like the West Seattle Bridge to move forward again.

We never stopped working on the bridge, despite the concrete strike. We adjusted the sequence of work activities so that we could complete other strengthening measures like sealing cracks with epoxy and wrapping the bridge walls with carbon fiber.

This week’s deliveries involved concrete trucks making back-to-back pours. Our construction contractor poured 15 truckloads of concrete in two days, more than half of the 245 cubic yards of structural concrete needed for the entire project.

The concrete was piped into the hollow bridge interior through a hole in the deck and was used to create massive blocks that form the foundations of the bridge’s additional post-tensioning system. Once the concrete structures have cured after 28 days, they’ll be capable of holding more than 20 million pounds of force.

The next step in the post-tensioning process is to install ducts in the new concrete blocks so that we can thread steel cables through the length of the bridge. After the concrete has fully cured, we will tighten these cables to strengthen the bridge and prevent future cracking.

SDOT also confirmed earlier this week that it expects to present a reopening-timeframe update when the Community Task Force meets on June 9th.

Last Friday night, we noted that City Councilmember Lisa Herbold‘s newsletter had two West Seattle Bridge timeline updates that weren’t included in the SDOT bridge newsletter sent just a few hours earlier. So we followed up. Here are the answers we received today:

(SDOT image, first structural-concrete delivery April 16)

CONCRETE: Almost six weeks after the first structural-concrete pour, the last two are expected to happen tomorrow and Thursday, according to SDOT spokesperson Ethan Bergerson. That doesn’t mark the end of the repair work, but it’ll be a milestone, since SDOT has said it needs to get through those pours before it can update the completion schedule. Speaking of which …

TIMELINE UPDATE: Bergerson explained Herbold’s mention of a timeline update expected June 9th: “We plan to give an update about the reopening timeline at the next Community Task Force meeting on June 9.” When the CTF last met in April, the June meeting date wasn’t finalized, and there was hope the reopening date would already have been announced, so that it would be less of a briefing meeting, but apparently not.

3:49 PM: We’ve been checking again this week with SDOT regarding the status of the high-bridge repair work. They’re still awaiting two more pours of specialized structural concrete and are working on that schedule, we were told in multiple inquiries this week. Today’s weekly update shows what they’ve been doing in the meantime:

We continued working on post-tensioning anchorage forms [above] in the West Seattle Bridge’s south girder. These anchorages contain lots of steel reinforcement and must be assembled with sleeves or openings. These sleeves allow for utility lines and new post-tensioning strands to pass through them. All of these components must be placed together correctly so that when the new post-tensioning strands are stressed to more than a million pounds, the bridge and all of its existing systems compress and strengthen the bridge as intended.

During the structural concrete pours, we are completing a review of the post-tensioning work completed so far, which includes the rebar we’ve installed, the holes we’ve drilled for the post-tensioning system, and the performance of the concrete.

As we complete this review, we’re making real-time adjustments to our work so we’re confident that the post-tensioning elements and the future post-tensioning system will ensure a safe and long-lasting repair.

SDOT has said repeatedly that they won’t be able to estimate the reopening date until those two remaining concrete pours are done. They’ve also said they expect to be able to provide the date with one month’s advance notice.

P.S. Reminder – the eastbound Spokane Street Viaduct continuation of the bridge east of Highway 99 is scheduled to close for expansion-joint and pothole work from late tonight through early Monday.

8:25 PM: Councilmember Lisa Herbold writes in her weekly newsletter, circulated tonight, that she’s been told the two structural-concrete pours are expected next week, and that “SDOT expects to make a time-frame announcement on June 9th.”

(SDOT camera image, 9:18 am today)

As covered in our morning traffic watch, the low bridge was out of service for more than an hour this morning, and intermittently closed for testing for a few hours beyond that. We asked SDOT what went wrong. Here’s the explanation:

Today during the rush hour commute, the Spokane Street Swing Bridge (West Seattle Low Bridge) was closed to vehicles due to an electrical issue. Our bridge operations team found that one of the electronic sensors (known as temponsonic transducer) which sends signals to the computer controlling bridge movements was causing an error message and had to be reset. Our crews fixed the current issue and completed several tests before opening the bridge to traffic. We are hopeful that the issue has been resolved. We will continue to perform our regular maintenance and frequent inspections on the bridge to ensure it stays operational and safe.

New electronic controls are part of what the low bridge is getting as part of the repair/rehab work scheduled later this year.

Last night we published Stephen‘s reader report about his car getting spattered by concrete and rocks while he was driving under the west end of the West Seattle Bridge on Monday afternoon. Others reported in comments that it had happened to them, We asked SDOT about it this morning. This afternoon, we have their reply:

Yesterday, crews were grinding the bridge deck in preparation of the concrete overlay coming to the Fauntleroy Expressway. The grinding machine removes old concrete and preps the surface for paving and sprays water while it’s working to keep dust under control. Unfortunately, [it] went deeper than expected, and a combination of the existing concrete and water dripped through the bridge deck and onto the ground and some cars below. Initial inspections show no serious damage to the bridge structure or deck that won’t be fixed when the new pavement is laid.

If someone believes their private property – including their vehicle – was damaged, then they can file a damage claim with the city through our online portal at Filing a Damage Claim | seattle.gov. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused for anyone who has been affected.

The Fauntleroy Expressway is the formal name of the west end of the bridge, before and as it curves up toward Fauntleroy Way.

ADDED: In response to a followup question, SDOT spokesperson Mariam Ali said the problem was caused by failure of a “sensor,” which has since been replaced.