The seventh meeting of the West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force held via Webex on Aug. 19 began with a dialog with Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan.

She spoke about what the impact of COVID 19 have been, what it means to have the issue of racial equity take on more prominence while acknowleding that the issue of the West Seattle Bridge, "Still looms large" in her list of priorities.

She said she doesn't sleep much lately and one night this week she decided to research via Google "Bridge Technology" seeking "what are the quickest types of bridges you can build, where have they been used," which drew some chuckles as she acknowledged that SDOT Director Sam Zimbabwe might not consider her a bridge expert. She pointed out how critical a piece of regional infrastructure the West Seattle Bridge has been. "It's important not just to everyone who lives in West Seattle and South Park and Delridge. it's one of our most important freight corridors." She pointed out that many port jobs rely on the bridge and related roads to keep freight moving. 

Mayor Durkan got a question regarding the Maritime industry and Terminal 5 from John Persak. She said longshore jobs "are some of the most important in our region" and said she's been holding high level discussions about Terminal 5 and access and egress for the workers noting that it's the largest investment made by the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma. "Without it, Seattle's not Seattle."

She spoke about the process SDOT has established to fix or replace the bridge in an expeditious manner after a question from Jill Mackie, Senior VP of Public Affairs for Vigor Shipyards. The Mayor said that the city has been spending time and money on the process because "We have to preserve both options' meaning both repair and replace. "The worst thing that could happen is if the bridge failed," and said they are doing "innovative things" noting that some people question that path. "We need to know, can it be saved and if that's the best route and if not we've got to be able to take it down in a thoughtful manner." She spoke about alternative modes of transportation and the aggressive plan SDOT has in place to get people out of their cars.

Tim McConnell of West Seattle Runner asked about confirmed funding and whether the city can utilize the "Rainy Day Fund". Durkan said "We do not have funding at this moment. "We are doing an interfund loan to get us through the next stages on the bridge," she said, "We're going to need money from the state and from our federal partners. There's no way this bridge gets repaired or replaced without it."

"If it turns out Sound Transit projects will need a new bridge and we know that for sure, we want to make sure we do them together if we can."

Dan Austin of Peel and Press (and the Flightpath in Beverly Park) asked about the limited number (13) of low bridge access passes for the 500 West Seattle businesses.  The Mayor said she was inspired by the small businesses that are struggling but staying open. She said they are constantly monitoring bridge capcity saying "Can there be known supply run days" where orders and needs are consolidated into one vehicle to help meet those needs."We know you need more and we're looking at how to get it." 

Deb Barker of the Morgan Community Association asked, "Do you support any moratoriums on construction in the affected communities while the bridge is down." Mayor Durkan did not respond directly to the question but said the reroutes have been hugely impactful on communities. She said they are looking at other marine alternatives for moving people even a barge in West Seattle that people could come up to. The idea being to get more people out of the flow of traffic through those neighborhoods. She said of the moratorium, "I have to think about it but right now the construction industry in our economy is one of the few that's keeping people employed."

Peter Goldman asked about public private partnerships on biking and e-biking. The Mayor said the idea has triple effects both short term and long term. "I feel like I'm twelve again," said about riding an e-bike. "It's my main mode of transportation on weekends. There's no hill I can't go up. I go to every part of the city and sometimes I'm incognito just to check out what's really happening."

Port of Seattle Commissioner Peter Steinbrueck asked "What are the primary causes of the bridge failure? How can we move forward with repair and replacement options without knowing what the cause is?"

The Mayor said, "We're not certain of how much each of the factors impacted it. Because it's a cement bridge it expands and contracts with the weather. Because it's on soft soil it moves. Because it was not designed for this many cars the load may have been different and the post tensioning filaments in it may have contributed as well. We also know the thing that's designed so the bridge can slide got stuck and you have more pressure on that section of the bridge. By releasing that we're hoping to see what the results are. It will give us I think a lot of information about whether it can be repaired or not. it's a very complicated structure built at a time when no one foresaw the amount of traffic that it would take. It clearly did not withstand it. The short answer is that it is all of those things. I don't believe we will have a defnitive answer on which was the one. Whether it's repair or replace we are going to have to accommodate all those factors in the mechanical design of the bridge.

Bridge Updates

SDOT announced on Tuesday that they made the decision to hire HNTB to design the replacement for the bridge whatever form that eventually takes. 

In the meantime the stabilization measures are underway with carbon fiber wrap and "external" (as opposed to embedded in concrete) post tension steel cabling both being installed. 

 

 

Financial Efforts

Interfund Loan and new Capital Improvement Program

• Looking into all possible federal, state, and local ways to fund repairs or replacement of the High-Rise Bridge

• Immediate need for additional revenues to cover current stabilization efforts, program development and Reconnect West Seattle

• City Council reviewed legislation for a $70 million interfund loan legislation to cover West Seattle Bridge Program expenses in 2020 and the first quarter of 2021

• Costs going forward remain uncertain until we make a repair or replace recommendation

Budget Action includes these expenses

• Temporary shoring

• Emergency West Seattle High-Rise Bridge stabilization

• Traffic and travel mitigation projects, including Reconnect West Seattle projects

• Low Bridge monitoring, maintenance and strengthening improvements

• Program development, including communications contracts, long-term funding-related contracts, and funding for the TAP

• Planning/Design contract for eventual replacement of the West Seattle High-Rise Bridge in the more immediate- or longer-term

• Monitoring, testing, and maintenance of other bridges in the West Seattle Bridge corridor

SDOT's Heather Marx went over what their efforts to mitigate the traffic impacts have been as perceived by various neighborhoods across the area and following the survey they conducted which ended July 31.

Reconnect West Seattle

What we heard

• Each neighborhood had unique concerns

• Selected priorities were generally correct, quickly.

• All neighborhoods need more traffic calming calming projects are a major priority but

• Each community had additional ideas the detour route. Examples include:

• speed calming devices

• stricter enforcement of speeding

• local-only access to neighborhood streets

• restricting or rerouting freight routes

• creating more “Stay Healthy Streets”

• reducing property taxes for impacted areas

• planting trees to reduce air pollution

 

Neighborhood Priorities Next Steps

• All data and top projects for each neighborhood have been shared with those communities in town hall-like events; they are on the Reconnect West Seattle website

• Community leaders are circulating the information and requesting final feedback by August 26

• Feedback will be incorporated into Implementation Plan

• Multiple projects are in progress and more are set to be implemented in the next few months

• Will need neighborhood input into projects that need to be designed and will work with communities to implement

• Additional work needed to align projects that cross neighborhood and modal boundaries

• Neighborhood projects are not the only improvements to be implemented; there will be corridors and intersections we work to improve holistically outside of this framework (e.g.West Marginal Way)

 

Next up were the details what they refer to as a Mobility Action Plan (MAP)

 

Mobility Action Plan – Key Themes

•Mode share targets are within our reach

• Drive alone trips will decrease to 36% mode share after social distancing (2021 Goal: 35%)

•Work from home will represent a 23% mode share (2021 Goal: 10%) indicating that people want to continue remote work in some capacity after social distancing

• Buses see the most significant mode share decrease (from 17% in pre-social distancing to 11% after social distancing); compare to 2021 Goal: 30%

• Increased interest in carpool, vanpool, employer shuttles after social distancing

• Bike and water taxi mode shares show increase to 6% each, but shy of the 10% mode share goal for 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakout groups

The groups in the meeting that broke out did so based on subject matter for the first time. 

Reconnect West Seattle was the topic of Group A. Thanks to David Bestock for his dilgent note taking)

• Based on community feedback, are there other things SDOT should consider in this Implementation Plan?
  • Comparing ideas across neighborhoods, suggested that SDOT considers suggestions for certain neighborhood improvements across all neighborhoods.
  • This will also help the challenge brought up to balance priorities of all neighborhoods (rather than having neighborhoods “compete” for priority)
  • Local Access Only roads/signs seems like a good idea to limit side street traffic.
  • Some seeking more clarity on SDOT’s ability and interest to route traffic through neighborhoods
  • “Freight routes” flagged by community are not necessarily aligned with the Freight Master Plan. Questions about how this affects the Top Ten list of projects, comparing with projects already planned pre-bridge-failure.
  • DO AT LEAST ONE project per neighborhood before fall is through.
  • Suggested to SDOT to just make a decision about Marginal Way and proceed.
  • From Equity standpoint, the survey captured higher representation of middle aged white folks compared to population. If we’re centering equity, we need MORE representation from vulnerable and underserved communities, not less. Next round this should be prioritized.
  • Also suggested to prioritize youth organizations, particularly those centering youth of color. Social media,  alternative formats, being more diligent about engaging variety of voices.
• What challenges do you see in achieving our mode split goals?
  • Creativity encouraged for traffic engineers – solutions can be temporary, and can break from existing norms.
  • Balancing community feedback and priorities with priorities of freight and freight master plan.
  • Georgetown folks feel freight-centered projects are taking priority over residential and small business
  • Also balancing side street re-routes, with flooding arterials.
  • Public transit routes coming closer to people’s homes, or with other means to get folks onto transit lines, is a huge disability access issue. Metro Access vans are helpful, but very cumbersome to arrange.
  • Access to internet – as much as city can do is needed, we have many residents who are without access to the internet. Never been a better time for municipal broadband.
• When should we next engage with the community and re-evaluate mode split goals?
  • Suggested to reevaluate during KC Phase 3 once more folks are moving, schools reopening, traffic patterns shifting.
  • No less than quarterly was suggested.
  • After repair/replace decision is made, later this fall.

Bridge Repair/Replacement was the focus Group B with more insight as to where we are in the process. Gregory M. Izzo, P.E.. Transportation Capital Projects Manager for SDOT said that they are nearly done with looking at the various benefits and costs will come up next. They talked about what the decision in October to repair or replace will mean, plus what the decisions will likely cost. "We got a pretty good sense of where that information will be," said former Mayor Greg Nickels who was the group moderator.

Neighborhood Priorities