The sign has the headline: The West Seattle Bridge is open, as of 21 hours ago, after its 2 1/2-year closure. People started celebrating immediately last night by driving across the bridge, honking their car horns, some even going up on the Andover pedestrian bridge to exuberantly cheer. Today, the celebration continued, with perhaps the biggest party at Ounces Tap Room and Beer Garden, continuing on into the evening.

Yesterday, Ounces had a pre-reopening party with an island theme, marking the last day of West Seattle’s status as an “accidental island.” Then just after 9 pm last night – as seen in video we featured – co-proprietor Laurel Trujillo watched an SDOT worker open the Delridge entrance to the bridge, right across from Ounces. She said they’d been seeing “false alarms” all day and was elated when it opened for real

This afternoon, all smiles, she told us they just felt the community deserved a party, so they threw one all weekend. She isn’t sure how the reopening will affect their business, except for increased visibility – she’s grateful for community support that continued through the closure and the pandemic. (Watch for other businesses’ festivities as the week ahead unfolds.)

Also this afternoon, we talked with SDOT’s West Seattle Bridge program director Heather Marx, who gave a post-reopening media briefing on the northwest corner of 35th and Fauntleroy, suddenly a much busier intersection with the bridge back in business. Wearing a “Reunited” commemorative T-shirt, Marx – a West Seattle resident – said all had gone well so far. Here’s the unedited Q&A, which lasted 15 minutes:

Key points: The West Seattle Bridge has the “most sophisticated monitoring system of any bridge in Seattle’s (city) inventory” so they’re getting info on a “minute-by-minute basis.” Formal inspections will be done every two weeks for the first three months, then once a year, then every two years. They will of course be watching the traffic patterns, since the pandemic has changed where and how people work; they’ll be monitoring feeder streets’ traffic patterns and signals too, and adjusting as necessary. The work of removing detour/closure signs will likely continue for much of the next week; if you see anything left behind, please notify SDOT at 206-684-ROAD. Marx – who hadn’t driven across the bridge yet as of the 1:30 pm briefing – said she was going to go check detour routes herself later in the day. Looking even further into the future, she reiterated that the repairs are expected to facilitate the bridge lasting its originally planned lifespan – almost 40 more years. But if it doesn’t, the replacement discussions that happened early in the closure period have left the city with a 30 percent design with which they could continue working immediately.

There was some talk about people speeding across the bridge last night and today, and Marx said her big request for people on all city streets was to “slow down.” And if anybody’s planning to try some bus-lane cheating, she warned that “Officer Friendly” will be back to watch for that. Speaking of watching, we’ll be chronicling the first post-reopening West Seattle Bridge morning commute starting by 6 am Monday.

9:13 PM: It’s official. Cars just started heading eastbound from the 35th entrance. More to come…

9:23 PM: Thanks to Laurel at Ounces (which is having a big reopening party tomorrow) for sending that video of the last barricade being removed at the Delridge entrance, and the worker declaring, “The West Seattle Bridge is open!”

9:30 PM: Here’s the official SDOT announcement. Key points to remember:
-Restrictions on the low bridge are now ALL lifted
-Buses don’t return to the high bridge until Monday

(Texted photo from Eric Linxweiler)

9:44 PM: Thanks for the photos and videos – getting caught up once the server starts behaving again (sorry if you’ve had trouble connecting, we have increased capacity over the years but apparently not by enough). Tim McMonigle reports his car was the first car across (see comment below) – here’s his video:

(Added: In the comment thread on our earlier report, “Matt #2” says he was first across on his motorcycle.) … Many noted fireworks this past half-hour. Haven’t had time to sleuth them yet. (Update: Someone on Twitter says they were off Bainbridge.)

10:10 PM: The reopening means a huge sigh of relief for residents along detour routes – particularly (but not limited to) Highland Park, South Park, and Georgetown. Kay from HP sent this photo and caption:

Tail lights on SW Holden – so long, y’all!

You might recall that SW Holden was so swamped with traffic immediately after the closure, SDOT installed a traffic signal at Highland Park Way/Holden in the span of a week – an intersection where previously residents had been requesting traffic-control help for decades.

10:45 PM: Speaking of looking back, if you for any reason want to browse back through our 2 1/2 years of coverage – going back to the shocking March 23, 2020, announcement that the bridge had to be closed – it’s all archived here, 300+ stories. Getting back to the present, here’s the “live” 35th/Fauntleroy webcam, which we featured earlier in the hours leading up to the reopening.

We’ll of course be watching the traffic situation, especially on Monday morning, with live updates during that first post-reopening outbound commute.

11:34 PM: Commenters are noting that the southbound I-5 exit to the bridge hasn’t reopened yet. SDOT mentioned that in a tweet and said it’s related to WSDOT’s “Revive I-5” work.

1:15 AM: One of the high bridge webcams is working now.

4:51 PM: No new intel so far today on exactly what time SDOT expects to reopen the West Seattle Bridge, but we did learn that the 35th/Fauntleroy traffic camera has been pointed at the bridge’s west entrance so you can see when it’s open there, so we’ve embedded it above. (The high-bridge cameras have not been reactivated yet, although we’re told, again, that they’re trying to get that done in time for the reopening.) Refresh for the latest version of the image, which is updated every minute or two, or go to the SDOT Travelers’ Map to click on the camera and get a window with an option for watching live video. Camera aside, SDOT says the official “it’s open” notification will come first via Twitter, then an SDOT Blog post, then a news release, then email.

7:30 PM: From SDOT via Twitter:

8:02 PM: Also from SDOT – please stay off the bridge so those crews can do their job.

8:48 PM: Went over to 35th/Fauntleroy for a ground-level look at final tasks. This crew took down the “Bridge Closed/Detour” sign by Taco Time’s east side:

Data point: The signs are reusable because what’s on them was applied with adhesive, not painted, because of the materials needed to meet reflectivity requirements.

9:10 PM: The live webcam shows crews just pulled the ROAD CLOSED signs away at the 35th/Fauntleroy entrance.

(Added: Video by Paulette Athan as Fauntleroy barricades were removed)
9:17 PM: And a moment after that, as we’ve posted separately, the bridge reopened.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Acknowledgments, applause, even a poem were part of an hourlong event this afternoon on Harbor Island commemorating the impending West Seattle Bridge reopening and acknowledging those involved in the repair project.

It seemed that almost everyone who had some role in what’s transpired since the sudden shutdown March 23, 2020, was there, including former Mayor Jenny Durkan and former SDOT director Sam Zimbabwe. They didn’t speak, though; newly confirmed SDOT director Greg Spotts took the podium first, for a land acknowledgment that mentioned the Muckleshoot and Suquamish tribes and their “Duwamish ancestors,” followed by a Native prayer, and then speeches. Here’s the video:

(WSB video)
Here’s the group shot of everyone who spoke:

Mayor Bruce Harrell said the most important thing he could offer was to “thank the people whose lives were impacted,” thanking everyone for their patience and acknowledging the “inconvenience” of the last two and a half years.

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell followed, noting that on Sunday, “the nightmare of this congestion [for detouring] is going to end.” She observed that freight was affected too, and talked about the federal funding that covered more than half the cost of repairs (as noted here last night).

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, describing herself as a “proud resident of West Seattle,” said she also is proud of the “patience, grit, and determination” people have shown during the 2 1/2 bridgeless years.

Seattle’s Civic Poet Jourdan Imani Keith read a poem composed for the occasion, musing what the bridge might say if it could speak, and reminding all that it has a name (the Jeanette Williams Memorial Bridge, after the city councilmember who secured funding for it 40-plus years ago).

City Councilmember Lisa Herbold spoke of the “stark effects” of the closure and the dramatic change in traffic patterns. She recalled former mayor Durkan’s “big decision” to proceed with repairs rather than replacement.

Port of Seattle Commissioner Hamdi Mohamed – mentioning her West Seattle roots as a Chief Sealth International High School graduate and South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) Running Start student, recapped the port’s partnership on low-bridge access.

Two labor leaders, Monty Anderson of Seattle Building Trades and Katie Garrow of MLK Labor, spoke about their members’ contributions to the repair work. Garrow also served on the West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force, whose co-chairs followed her at the microphone: Paulina López of the Duwamish River Community Coalition spoke of relief that the Duwamish Valley (South Park and Georgetown) would soon be free of the extra air pollution brought by detour traffic, and hope that people will come back to the area for other reasons, like dining and shopping; Greg Nickels, former Seattle mayor, reminded everyone that Sunday will be the 910th day since the bridge closed, saying two of his grandchildren have been born in that time. He also spoke of a family member having to use the low bridge to get to cancer treatments, something made possible because the WSBCTF pushed for people undergoing “life-saving treatments” to be added to the list of those who could get permission to use the low bridge during restricted times.

In post-speeches Q&A, we asked if anyone at the city would apologize for the bridge shutdown having to happen at all. Mayor Harrell fielded that one, saying he would “apologize on behalf of the city,” asking for “grace” because “leaders … are human; they make mistakes.”

Along those lines, the citizens coalition West Seattle Bridge NOW sent this statement about the event:

We’re relieved that everyone who’s been impacted by the bridge closure can finally get moving again. But a cause for celebration? Not so much. When the bridge closed without warning two and a half years ago Mayor Jenny Durkan declared an emergency. Then what happened? Bureaucracy as usual. While we sat stuck in traffic, with travel times to get almost anywhere outside of West Seattle doubled, tripled or worse, the city took its sweet time exploring replacement options and finally settled on repairs after community pushback. There was nothing about this process that suggested any increased urgency or accelerated timeline.

We think instead of celebrating, our elected leaders should take stock of why we had to wait two and a half years for a critical transportation link to be restored. West Seattle has already paid the price for the City and SDOT choosing to respond to a transportation emergency with the usual process. In a city rife with bridges with maintenance backlogs we only hope that no other community has to endure what we have for the past 30 months.

The West Seattle Bridge closure should serve as a cautionary tale. We’d love to see a press conference where elected leaders share lessons learned from the closure and what’s being done to avoid a similar debacle. That way we can all feel like our two and a half year traffic jam at least helped prevent the next one.

Other statements issued after today’s event include:
–SDOT’s news release
–City Councilmembers Lisa Herbold and Alex Pedersen (who chairs the Transportation and Public Utilities Committee)
–Sen. Cantwell

As for the bridge itself – the backdrop for this afternoon’s event at Terminal 18 Park – SDOT still isn’t saying exactly when on Sunday it will reopen. Some fencing/signage removal is under way – but SDOT stresses that the bridge is not open yet.

SIDE NOTE: Some people on their way to the event were delayed because, almost predictably, the Duwamish bridges had to open for ship traffic. We waited at the 1st Ave. So. Bridge and by the time we got to the event site, the same vessel was going through the low bridge, a bulk carrier: