West Seattle Blog… | WEST SEATTLE BRIDGE: Effects of the heat wave? In addition, the monitoring of new federal funding
Two notes from West Seattle Bridge tonight:
HEAT WAVE EFFECTS? As we’ve heard a lot about how the stabilized deck withstood the cold of last winter – including a foot of snow – we wondered how it handled the extreme heat. No problem since this afternoon, SDOT told us via email, while explaining why the WS bridge did not receive the same treatment as Some others:
Heat stress issues are of particular concern to our steel movable bridges, which is why we are closely monitoring their performance and cooling them with water during this current period of high temperature. The West Seattle High Rise Bridge (WSHB) is primarily constructed of reinforced concrete and is not affected by extreme heat in the same way as our steel movable bridges. It should also be noted that the WSHB is currently in a stabilized condition due to inspection, design and construction efforts over the past year. As such, we do not foresee any damage to the WSHB from extreme heat and therefore do not see the need for cooling; As a precaution, however, we still have active instrumentation throughout the WSHB to monitor performance and our readiness is always maintained with our Monitoring, Operation, and Response (MORP) plan in effect if anything goes. unexpected had to happen.
We will double-check tomorrow.
NEW FEDERAL GRANT: Over the weekend, West Seattle-resident Representative of the United States House Pramila Jayapal ad that an $ 11 million federal grant was on its way to help fund repairs to the West Seattle Bridge. During the morning city council briefing today, the chair of the transport committee Alex pedersen noted that while the grant was good news, it was less than what the city had requested. We went back to the archives to find out how much the request was and found this slide from the March 17 briefing in front of his committee, when the grant application was about to be submitted:
So the city was hoping for up to $ 21 million, but got $ 11 million. Regarding the new federal infrastructure package, the council was informed by staff this morning that it is not yet clear what the city expects to receive. In the meantime, federal funding received for the bridge included a $ 14 million grant channeled through the Puget Sound Regional Council. The full cost of repairs plus other projects – low bridge work, calming traffic along detour routes, trying to get people to switch modes, etc. – is estimated at $ 175 million.
