West Seattle Bridge

West Seattle Bridge

A $150 million defective concrete structure that lasted only 36 years… 

The Meles Bridge in Izmir, Turkey was built in 850 B.C. nearly 3,000 years ago.  It is still in use. 

The Pont du Gard (shown above) crosses the Gardon River in Southern France.  It was built in 63 B.C. – over 2,000 years ago. 

 The new West Seattle Bridge was completed in 1984 – 36 years ago – and it’s already broken.

 Why?

 According to the May 15, 2020 report by WSP USA, the City of Seattle’s structural engineering firm based in Federal Way, the structural failure of the bridge is the result of a design error – “an unintended redistribution of forces within the bridge” that portends collapse, with pieces of concrete detaching and falling.

(Source: WSP May 15, 2020 Report)

WSP’s engineers advise that it would be “prudent to evacuate the area within a 45-degree projection from the bridge’s vertical edge.”

 As we now know, the Seattle Department of Transportation [SDOT] observed cracking in the grid in 2013.  As only a bureaucracy could respond, it waited seven years until March 23, 2020 to announce that the bridge was hazardously cracked, and all traffic was to be immediately banned and the bridge closed. 

 With the bridge “quarantined” indefinitely –likely to be demolished – what is SDOT’s remedy for West Seattle residents as the stay-at-home restrictions are lifted and the 100,000 vehicles that crossed the bridge each day begin the return to work?  

For an overview of Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore coverage of other Highway Design issues, go to www.keithkesslerlaw.com and www.stritmatter.com.