5:30 PM: This Friday marks 16 months since the emergency closure of the
West Seattle Bridge. Tonight, SDOT is presenting updates and answering questions at a community meeting. You can watch above, via YouTube, but if you want to ask questions, participate via Zoom – here’s the link. We’ll post notes every 10 minutes or so.
SDOT director
Sam Zimbabwe welcomed attendees, reminding them that he too is a West Seattle resident. Since the bridge closure, “our priority has been first and foremost public safety,” he said, and reiterated the “mid-2022” reopening projection. He was to be followed by Deputy Mayor
David Moseley, but technical challenges intervened; instead, Zimbabwe summarized Moseley’s prepared remarks, saying Mayor
More news from this month’s
WMW/HIGHLAND PARK WAY INTERSECTION: SDOT’s
Trevor Partap announced the plan you see above for more rechannelization and signal changes at the busy West Marginal Way/Highland Park Way intersection. They will also be upgrading the communications technology so they’ll be better able to monitor the traffic flow and change the signal timing remotely if necessary. These improvements will remain even after the bridge reopens. They’re working on design right now, with construction in the second half of the year.
And the Task Force got updates on two other areas of West Marginal:
Laws change so one can only hope.
Alf January 14, 2021 (1:36 pm)
So is the bottom line they have no clue when the upper bridge will re open
WSB January 14, 2021 (1:44 pm)
Not before finidhing the plan and hiting the contrsctor.
Sparky January 14, 2021 (7:46 pm)
The city clearly doesn’t care about fixing the bridge with any level of urgency. We’ve been hung out to dry.
Alf January 14, 2021 (1:58 pm)
I appreciate process but I still feel the autocrats don’t appreciate the urgency the community feels also why are longshore folks deserve the opportunity to use the lower bridge and essential healthcare workers not?folks getting cemo not but businesses no?with everything else going on it feels like a long drawn out demise of West Seattle