West Seattle Bridge: A look at construction so far as reopening date looms

SEATTLE – The West Seattle Bridge stays on monitor for a Sept. 18 reopening date, Seattle Division of Transportation officers stated on Thursday.

The bridge was shut down by Mayor Jenny Durkan on March 23, 2020 after engineers couldn’t vouch for the bridge’s structural integrity. 

FOX 13 was in a position to have a look contained in the internal sanctum of the hole bridge the place the key structural work had been accomplished on the $47 million restore. 

Lengthy metal cylinders filled with metal cables are tightening the bridge in the important thing areas the place cracks within the concrete construction began increasing quickly in 2020. A number of metal tendons line the ground into the cavernous bridge, every able to 280,000 kilos of pulling stress.  

4 longer metal cylinders run practically all the size of the bridge. Each incorporates 40 strands of metal wiring and every has the pulling energy of 1,000,000 kilos of stress.

“It’s compressing the bridge in order that these cracks that had opened up at the moment are squeezed shut, they’re sealed with epoxy they usually have a carbon fiber wrap that’s utilized to verify they don’t open up sooner or later,” stated Adam Dour, the mission supervisor for Kramer North America, the corporate accountable for strengthening the bridge.

There are nonetheless hairline cracks within the facet partitions of the hole core. The bigger cracks, some that started to type 15 years in the past, have been full of epoxy.

“These are extra of a structural concern than the unique hairline cracks,” stated Greg Banks, the chief bridge engineer for the mission.

The thousands and thousands of kilos of stress to tighten the bridge has additionally improved its energy.

“The rehabilitation rigidity repairs are designed to accommodate all of the lanes of site visitors at the moment on the bridge,” stated Dour. “The burden added by the vehicles is just not a good portion of the burden of all the construction. 80% of the burden of this construction is the construction itself.

When it opens, it won’t be a sluggish opening with only one or two lanes of autos.

“Within the early days, we had been considering that is likely to be the fitting method to go however no, we aren’t going to strategy it that approach — we’re simply going to open the bridge,” stated Heather Marx, the Venture Lead for the Seattle Division of Transportation.

The be sure that the bridge performs as anticipated, a collection of sensors had been positioned in areas which have proven cracking and can monitor its each transfer.

“The bridge strikes when it reacts to the surroundings it goes up and down and every part and we have been finding out that for a few years,” stated Greg Banks, the lead engineer on the repairs.  “So if the motion is completely different from what we have seen, it’ll inform us one thing is occurring and we’ll come out and take a look at it.”

Instantly after the bridge closed, restrictions had been positioned on when and who may use the perfect various to cross the Duwamish River – the Decrease West Seattle Swing Bridge.

Utilizing the decrease bridge quite than a prolonged detour may save drivers 45 minutes.

Photograph enforcement cameras had been ultimately put in and unauthorized drivers would obtain a $75 quotation.  These restrictions and the cameras are going away when the bridge reopens.

“As soon as this excessive bridge opens, you’ll drive freely on the low bridge with no photograph enforcement and no restrictions,” stated Marx.

Load testing on the bridge will probably be getting underway subsequent week. If the bridge fails the take a look at, the opening may very well be delayed, in accordance with Marx, however officers say they don’t anticipate that to occur.