The Doctor Jose Rizal Bridge, one of two bridges with rehabilitation work beginning late 2009.
If you’ve been reading the blog with us for a while you know that, just like growing apples and cherries, paving streets and sidewalks in Seattle is a seasonal activity. Paving and rain don’t mix well, and we got a taste this weekend of the rainy days that are soon to come.
But that doesn’t mean that there’s no field work to get done in the coming months. As paving projects wrap up this fall, two of our Bridging the Gap-funded bridge rehabilitation, replacement and seismic retrofit projects are moving into construction this winter: the Doctor Jose Rizal Bridge Rehabilitation Project and the 15th Avenue NE at 105th Street Bridge Rehabilitation Project. Watch for work on both those structures to begin soon.
In honor of the bridge construction, here are few fun facts about Seattle’s bridges:
1. Over 16,000 bridge openings happen each year. The Fremont Bridge has the least clearance and thus the most openings with over 6,000 each year.
2. The Spokane Street Swing Bridge is the only double leaf, hydraulic, segmental concrete swing bridge in the world. Each of the two spans weighs over 15 million pounds. A nine foot diameter hydraulic cylinder (jack) is use to lift the bridge during each opening.
3. The Ballard Bridge is 2,854 feet long. It’s the longest City-owned bridge with pedestrian access.
Fremont Bridge maintenance last summer.
Tracy at WSB says
Cool factoid about what we over here all know as simply “The Low Bridge.” I covered a story a couple weeks ago about the guy who has “adopted” a multijurisdictional sliver of land beneath it, by Jim Clark Marina, and when I pulled up to meet him, the swing bridge was swinging open. I had never seen it from that angle before. My story subject, a “semi-retired engineer,” went on to tell me all about the hydraulics in the round assemblies that swing the bridge’s halves. Going to go out there sometime just to sit around and watch – truly a remarkable sight.