Runners, walkers and revelers will be among the first the cross the new SR-520 Bridge spanning Lake Washington.
The state Department of Transportation is opening the structure to pedestrians for a fun run tomorrow morning, followed by an all-day party for folks on foot. Cyclists will have their shot at riding across on Sunday morning.
This weekend’s festivities on the bridge include an official visit from folks with the Guinness Book of Records, confirming the new 520’s status as the world’s longest floating bridge; there’ll be loads of Legos for kids of all ages to play with— and speeches by Governor Jay Inslee and others for a big ribbon cutting ceremony that the public can take part in.
It’s being touted as a big, historical celebration, open to anyone willing to join the crowds via shuttle buses to the bridge deck. So, why is this opening such a big deal?
New Bridge Will Be Safer, Improve Traffic Flow
The rebuild has been in the works for decades, because the old 520 is not earthquake proof and is considered unsafe during big windstorms. Due to that, recently it’s been closed because of stormy weather, often several times a year. The replacement structure is designed to be much safer and stronger.
“The new bridge will be 20 feet off of the lake, so you won’t have the wave action that oftentimes closed the existing floating bridge. And the new bridge is much more stout – it can take wind gusts of up to 89 mph, so we’re not going to have the same type of closures that we had,” said Steve Peer, a spokesman for the Washington State Department of Transportation, or WSDOT.
Peer says the new bridge will also help stem congestion because it has three lanes in each direction (instead of two) and much wider shoulders that disabled vehicles will be able to move onto.
The cost of the new bridge is capped at $4.65 billion.
Three Full Weekend Closures In April
The new 520 opens to westbound motorists a week from Monday [on April 11] and to eastbound traffic two weeks later. To accommodate the changeovers, there will be full weekend closures each time; WSDOT warns of increased traffic all around the lake as a result for three weekends in April.
“The first one is for the public event,” said WSDOT spokesman Travis Phelps, who specializes in traffic impacts. He says to make sure the transition goes as planned, they need to shut down the bridge on multiple weekends.
“The other two [closures] are to start tying in the new bridge into mainline 520. And there’s a lot of real heavy construction work that we need to do to make that happen. And to give our crews space and to do it safely, we need to have a complete shutdown of the structure two more times, in addition to this weekend,” Phelps said.
The work is weather dependent, so they’re hoping everything can happen on schedule.
WSDOT warns the 520 closures will increase traffic on alternate routes all around the lake. They’re advising drivers to plan accordingly.
