The Fauntleroy Expressway spanning over SW Admiral Way, Harbor Ave SW, SW Avalon Way, SW Manning St. as well as some local railroad tracks is now stronger and donning new jackets. They aren’t team jackets but the shiny steel wraps do make the gang of concrete columns look nice together in a photo, like the one below (the backhoe seems to be posing but really this is a candid shot).
The now substantially complete SDOT project to seismically retrofit this raised roadway at the west end of the West Seattle Bridge ensured a new steel jacket got wrapped around each of the 52 columns. Plus, the crew doing the work completed this and all other major project tasks six weeks ahead of schedule.
Projects like these – done mostly under the main deck of a bridge – don’t get a lot of positive attention since the improvements are where drivers can’t see them. Suffice it to say this $4.1 million project did make significant and important improvements including replacing 874 bearing pads on 26 bents (the areas along the bridge where the supports are – one column on each side – connecting the deck slabs above). That was the specific work that required nightime closures of the bridge.
This seismic retrofit project was critical to complete and greatly increases the survivability of the structure during an earthquake. Yet, those points aren’t comforting when you’re stuck in traffic. Maybe it would help, harkening back to those detour days, to know that this Bridging the Gap funded project also came in under budget.
Now those are team jackets we can all feel good about!