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Tear-down of Seattle's Fairview Avenue bridge begins Monday

SEATTLE — The Seattle Squeeze is about to get a little tighter.

Crews will start tearing down the Fairview Avenue North bridge Monday.

The closure will last for about 18 months while the bridge is demolished and replaced.

It’s the last wooden bridge on a major road in Seattle.

The Seattle Department of Transportation says it’s built on 71-year-old wood pilings that may not be stable in an earthquake. Some pilings are rotting and concrete girders on half of the bridge are cracked.

The new bridge will be wider, have three viewpoints, sidewalks on both sides and a two-way protected bike lane.

SDOT says the closure is going to have a big effect on traffic.

"We expect that a lot of people will take Eastlake, but Eastlake is already a pretty heavily trafficked corridor. Buses will have an alternative pathway, they'll come down through Aloha,” Meghan Shepard with SDOT said.

About 17,000 cars use the bridge every day.  SDOT is asking people to use other ways to travel the area to cut down on the number of cars on surrounding roads.