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Bridging Seattle with BTG

Voter approved Bridging the Gap (BTG) funds have helped complete a significant number of Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) capital projects in 2010, including the rehabilitation of several highly utilized bridges.  If you live in or travel through the U-District you likely saw the work completed on the NE 45th Street Viaduct this year. In the Georgetown neighborhood, the South Albro Place over Airport Way South Bridge got a seismic retrofit; SODO’s Jose Rizal Bridge was fully rehabilitated; and in early 2010 rehabilitation of the East Duwamish Waterway Bridge was completed.  Meanwhile, the rehabilitation of the 15th Avenue NE at 105th Street Bridge is on target for a late spring 2011 completion.

Jose Rizal Bridge after rehabilitation work completed in 2010

Looking ahead, in the first quarter of 2011 Airport Over Argo Bridge Rehabilitation work begins, and soon after construction to seismically retrofit the Fauntleroy Expressway Bridge is expected to start.  Also in 2011, BTG-funded work on the four King Street Station area bridges is on the docket, as well as work on the bridge at East Marginal Way at Horton and the Ballard Bascule Bridge.

In 2006, Seattle voters passed a nine-year, $365 million levy for transportation maintenance and improvements known as Bridging the Gap. The levy is complemented by a commercial parking tax and an employee hours tax.  The funds are supporting a multitude of projects all across Seattle from all the arterial paving to transit corridor improvements and beyond.