In response to West Seattle Bridge closure, city to audit maintenance and spending on its aging bridges

Last month’s emergency shutdown of the West Seattle Bridge has prompted Seattle City Council member Alex Pedersen to request an audit of the city’s 124 bridges, he said Thursday.

Pedersen, who chairs the council’s Transportation and Utilities Committee, said City Auditor David G. Jones will compile data about maintenance spending and comparisons to peer cities.

“In a city surrounded by several waterways, the bridges are the backbone of the city’s infrastructure, for residents and the economy,” Pedersen said. “The rapid decline of the West Seattle Bridge underscores the need for the city and the public to have an understanding of the condition of bridges throughout Seattle, including preventive maintenance and best practices.”

Traffic Lab is a Seattle Times project that digs into the region’s transportation issues to explore the policies and politics that determine how we get around and how billions of dollars in public money are spent.

Two of the city’s busiest crossings — the Ballard and Fremont bridges — are steel drawspans built in 1917 to coincide with the opening of the ship canal between Lake Washington and Puget Sound. The University Bridge, also a steel drawspan, opened in 1919.

Matt Donahue, roadway structures director for the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), said two years ago the Council should be allocating $80 million a year toward bridge maintenance and major repairs, or about five times the usual spending.

The city does have some projects underway, including a seismic upgrade of the 15th Avenue Northeast bridge over Cowen Park in Pedersen’s district, and about 15 other seismic upgrades planned through 2023. Contractors are building a new Sodo bridge over train tracks at South Lander Street, and replacing a wood-supported Fairview Avenue bridge at Eastlake.

The cracked West Seattle Bridge remains closed until at least 2022, and the city has few options to add capacity quickly. No funding source is identified yet for a possible nine-figure repair bill, or even the $33 million needed for urgent safety bracing and traffic control this year.

This weekend, SDOT will repave a crumbling five-way intersection near the west side of the smaller low-level bridge and revise the lane layouts before Gov. Jay Inslee’s coronavirus stay-at-home order eases, presumably later this spring, and congestion worsens.

The audit requested Thursday is not a forensic investigation of West Seattle Bridge damage, which first appeared as small cracks in 2013, or the decisions made by SDOT officials since then.

“SDOT’s been very responsive and transparent regarding the West Seattle Bridge,” Pedersen said. “This is more of a citywide look at bridges in general.”

Besides spending levels, Pedersen’s letter to the auditor also asks for a review showing which bridges are at highest risk of failure.

The University Bridge in Seattle opened July 1, 1919, about two years late. A previous version of this story said the Ballard, Fremont and University drawbridges all opened in 1917.