Crews finish pouring structural concrete inside West Seattle Bridge
SEATTLE - The Seattle Department of Transportation announced that it has completed a major milestone in the final repairs of the West Seattle Bridge.
On Thursday, crews finished pouring structural concrete inside the bridge, which will form the structures that will hold new steel cables essential to strengthening the bridge.
"Completing this crucial project milestone marks the end of a challenging process that affected our reopening schedule," officials said.
The work took 15 truckloads of concrete in two days, more than half of the 245 cubic yards of structural concrete needed for the entire project. It will take about a month for the concrete structures to cure.
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Concrete workers return to work, begin pouring concrete on West Seattle Bridge
Hundreds of concrete workers have agreed to return to work, and crews started structural concrete pouring to repair the West Seattle Bridge Saturday morning.
Concrete work was scheduled to start in February but it was delayed because of the concrete strike.
Officials said the next step in the post-tensioning process is to install ducts in the new concrete blocks. This will allow crews to thread steel cables through the length of the bridge. After the concrete cures, cables will be tightened to strengthen the bridge and prevent future cracking.
The bridge is still expected to reopen mid-2022.