Seattle-Bainbridge ferry route reopens ahead of schedule

Seattle-Bainbridge ferry route reopens to vehicles

The Seattle-Bainbridge ferry route is open ahead of schedule, after a nearly week-long closure to vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles and electric scooters.

SEATTLE - The Seattle-Bainbridge ferry route is open ahead of schedule, after a nearly week-long closure to vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles and electric scooters.

Work was being done for overhead passenger walkway replacement construction.   

The closure began Thursday, Sept. 7 and was expected to continue through Wednesday, Sept. 13 at 3 a.m. Washington State Ferries (WSF) announced Tuesday the route is back open starting with the 6:40 p.m. departure from Bainbridge, then a 7:30 Seattle departure.

WSF said crews replaced the 50-year-old wooden walkway on Bainbridge Island with a new, seismically-safe structure. The closure was necessary to allow crews to stage cranes and equipment to lift and lower the walkway spans onto concrete and steel pilings in the water, officials said. 

The Seattle-Bainbridge was on a one-boat sailing schedule, and the Edmonds-Kingston route added a third boat to help with vehicle traffic traveling to or from Bainbridge Island and the Kitsap Peninsula.