West Seattle Bridge reopens after 2 ½-year closure – SDOT Blog

Stronger, safer bridge returns to the Seattle transportation community.

The West Seattle Bridge reopened to the general public tonight after being closed 2 ½ years for repairs by the Seattle Division of Transportation (SDOT). The principle bridge entrances opened to site visitors and crews continued to take away barricades on the different on-ramps and detour indicators all through the peninsula.

We additionally ended driver restrictions on the Spokane Avenue Swing Bridge (low bridge) and turned off the automated digital camera system that enforced them.

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Elected officers and different dignitaries gathered at a press convention yesterday to specific appreciation for the perseverance and resilience of the hundreds of people that stay in and round West Seattle. Video of this occasion is on the market by way of the Seattle Channel, and written quotes are recorded on this SDOT Weblog put up.

9 King County Metro bus routes will shift again to the West Seattle Bridge on Monday: routes 21/21X, 50, 55, 56, 57, 120, 125, and the RapidRide C Line. Metro expects the usage of the excessive bridge to scale back journey time and enhance reliability for riders between West Seattle and downtown Seattle.

The repairs to the West Seattle Bridge included almost 60 miles of metal cables post-tensioned to kind the brand new spine of the bridge. Every of the cables was anchored into new specialised concrete blocks woven into the bridge and able to holding greater than 20 million kilos of drive.

The brand new post-tensioning system works in tandem with different repairs to the bridge, together with an intensive community of greater than 100,000 sq. ft of bolstered carbon fiber sheets wrapped inside and out of doors the bridge partitions and over 240 gallons of epoxy injected into cracked concrete.

These restore programs have ready the bridge to deal with the burden of autos and many years of seasonal temperature adjustments. With these repairs full, the bridge is way stronger than it was earlier than and can final for many years to return.

Current assessments demonstrated that the repairs had been performing as anticipated and the bridge was robust sufficient to help the hundreds of autos anticipated to cross it every day. Our engineers and bridge specialists will proceed to intently monitor the bridge utilizing cameras, sensors, and frequent in-person inspections.

In the course of the restore course of, crews put in everlasting inspection platforms contained in the bridge’s girders that can permit inspectors to look at the construction’s concrete simply. Crews additionally widened the left shoulder of the westbound lanes in order that bridge inspectors can get contained in the construction for frequent inspections with out having to shut a site visitors lane.

Along with restore work, we took benefit of the closure to finish different kinds of bridge upkeep work. This work included changing outdated growth joints and signal constructions, pouring a brand new concrete overlay on the Fauntleroy Expressway to the west of the bridge, and repouring worn concrete panels on the bridge’s western strategy.