Information from Seattle Department of Transportation

We’re continuing toward reopening on September 18 and removed the final work platforms from the bridge’s east span last weekend. Watch the process of lowering and dismantling the work platforms in our timelapse video.

Our focus now is getting the bridge and roadway ready for travelers again. This week, we began closing the access openings in the bridge deck that were created to make it easier for workers to get inside the bridge girders.

Closing the deck openings involves building concrete molds, installing and tying new rebar, and pouring concrete into the assembled molds. We’re also filling the other holes we needed in the bridge deck for the rigging components that secured the temporary work platforms.

We’re also doing other prep work throughout the corridor such as reinstalling guardrails, installing covers on expansion joints, and replacing wires for the bridge’s lighting system.

West Seattle Bridge Final Repairs Checklist

• Completed: Let the post-tensioning concrete set and cure
• Completed: Install post-tensioning ducts
• Completed: Pre-tensioning epoxy injections and carbon-fiber wrapping
• Completed: Install post-tensioning strands
• Completed: Tension post-tensioning strands
• Completed: Complete final epoxy injections and carbon-fiber wrapping
• Completed: Complete cure time for the carbon-fiber wrapping
• Completed: Remove work platforms
• Under construction: Restore the bridge deck
• To do: Load test and inspect the repairs
• To do: Demobilize the site

Saturday, September 3: Closing lanes on the Spokane St Viaduct to survey the pavement 

Plan for a closure of all the eastbound lanes on the Spokane St Viaduct between SR 99 and I-5 on Saturday, September 3 from 8 AM to 4 PM.  

We’re closing all the eastbound lanes so crews can complete a survey of the bridge surface. The survey will help us develop an accurate surface map of the Spokane St Viaduct bridge deck and inform any future paving of the bridge. 

Detours will be in place, directing traffic to streets in the Sodo neighborhood. Both eastbound and westbound lower Spokane St under the viaduct will be open during the closure. The westbound lanes of the Spokane St Viaduct will remain open during this work on the eastbound lanes.

Construction in West Seattle this weekend 

Weather permitting, we’ll be repainting intersection markings on two intersections starting Friday night at 9 PM through Saturday morning at 7 AM. This work was rescheduled from last weekend due to rain.

The intersections we’ll be marking are 1st Ave S and East Marginal Way S and 2nd Ave SW and Highland Park Way SW. Traffic lanes will be closed as needed and then reopened after the intersection markings have been painted. Please anticipate delays and navigate the area with caution. 

Question of the week: What will traffic look like after the West Seattle Bridge reopens?

When the West Seattle Bridge reopens, we expect traffic to return to what it looked like in early 2020 before the pandemic lockdowns and bridge closure. Areas leading into the West Seattle Bridge corridor are expected to see an increase in traffic, like the north ends of Delridge Way SW and Fauntleroy Way SW. We expect traffic to decrease on the detour routes in Highland Park, Roxhill, south Delridge, Riverview, South Park, and Georgetown.

As traffic patterns change in September and October because of the bridge reopening, please take extra care when you are driving throughout West Seattle. Drive slowly, keep your eyes on the road, don’t be distracted or intoxicated, treat all intersections like crosswalks, and look out for everyone – people biking, walking, rolling, driving, and taking the bus.

Our Slow the Flock Down campaign signs help encourage drivers to slow down while driving in the city of Seattle to advance safety of all people. Graphic: SDOT

While we continue to redesign Seattle's streets and work toward long-term Vision Zero goals, it's also important to recognize that each of us has a role to play in looking out for each other as we move around the city. Visit our Rules of the Road page learn more.