The city of Seattle has shifted from emergency stabilization of the cracked West Seattle High-Rise Bridge to preliminary design, and has put out a Request for Qualifications to bring a contractor on board during the design phase.
The Seattle Dept. of Transportation (SDOT) closed the 2,600-ft-long, 37-year-old high-rise bridge in March 2020 due to worsening cracking. Since then, Kraemer North America, hired under an emergency contract to stabilize the structure, injected epoxy into cracks, added external post-tensioning to support the existing internal post-tensioning system, wrapped concrete girders with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer and released the damaged bearing at Pier 18.