Seattle bridge repairs required

Major repairs are required for the West Seattle Bridge.
By MJ Woof August 24, 2020 Read time: 1 min
Costly repairs are needed to the West Seattle Bridge – image courtesy © Mariana Ianovska, Dreamstime.com

Major repair work is needed for the West Seattle Bridge. Estimates suggest that the necessary work could cost from US$160-$225 million.

Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is securing the financing required for the work. Funding is being sourced from the city’s budget as well as from loans.

The cracking in the bridge, which opened to traffic in 1984, appears to have been caused by a number of factors. The bridge carries more traffic and more heavy trucks than it was originally designed for and an extra lane was added some years ago. The bridge also suffered from a jammed bearing, as well as coping with an earthquake and creep in its concrete structure, resulting in a reduction of tension in the steel reinforcement.

Finance & Funding

Related Content

  • Interstate bridge collapse in Washington State
    May 24, 2013
    A section of bridge carrying Interstate 5 over the Skagit River in the US has collapsed, dumping a number of vehicles into the river, although no fatalities have been reported. The four lane highway bridge lies around 100km north of Seattle in the Pacific North Western state of Washington and provides a key link with neighbouring Canada. The collapse means that traffic between the US and Canada has been disrupted until repairs can be made or a temporary replacement put in place. There is another bridge runn
    Read More
  • Mexico City’s new tunnel link being comnpleted
    July 14, 2017
    A new twin tube tunnel in Mexico City will help reduce the city’s chronic congestion problem, which is particularly acute at peak travel periods. The tunnel is located at Mixcoac in the south west of the city and should be ready by August 2017. The new twin bore tunnel link will reduce traffic jams on the city’s Circuito Interior urban highway, which handles up to 300,000 vehicles/hour at peak travel periods. Mexico City’s traffic jams are notorious and journey times can be infuriatingly long at times.
    Read More
  • New German bridge - cost increase
    September 5, 2022
    An important new German bridge is seeing a cost increase.
    Read More
  • Final beam for Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement
    May 1, 2020
    The US$1.47 billion project was started in 2013 and open later this year.
    Read More

Highlighted Content