SEATTLE (AP) - The Seattle Department of Transportation has begun recruiting construction firms to strengthen the cracked West Seattle Bridge, to be reopened for traffic in mid-2022.
City engineers estimate the contract value at $48 million in bid documents posted Wednesday, the Seattle Times reported. The winning team will write a final engineering design and hire subcontractors before work on the concrete structure resumes in November.
The bid kickoff comes as Seattle approaches the anniversary of the six-lane span’s March 23 emergency closure. That’s when bridge engineers concluded that accelerating cracks might lead to a collapse if traffic continued. The damage began as tiny hairline cracks seven years earlier, and the city didn’t perceive them as a safety threat until early 2020.
Over next winter, contractors will string tons of steel rope lengthwise through the 140-foot-high central span, and the two adjacent side spans, to compress and fortify the 37-year-old concrete, a process known as post-tensioning.
SDOT says it has reached 30% design, a common public-works project milestone. Under a relatively new contracting method, the winning team will finish full engineering, then propose a price to complete repairs. That’s supposed to help the city and builders find possible problems before heavy construction begins, reducing expensive change orders.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.