Officials seek firms to bid on West Seattle Bridge repairs

West Seattle makes improvements to bridge detour

The city of West Seattle is considering safety improvements along West Seattle Bridged detour. Q13's Steve Kiggins reports.

WEST SEATTLE - 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.

RELATED: City considering safety improvements along West Seattle Bridge detour

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.

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