City light ‘going back to the drawing board’ after second set of power poles collapses

SEATTLE — Seattle City Light says it’s “back to the drawing board” after 15 power poles collapsed on East Marginal Way in Sunday’s windstorm.

This comes two and a half years after 26 power poles collapsed onto the same roadway and injured a couple driving by.

East Marginal Way finally reopened Wednesday around 8:30 a.m.

Seattle City Light now says two of the poles that fell Sunday were slated to be replaced.

East Marginal Way was closed through Tuesday, which proved to be a headache for drivers and businesses in the area.

The signs are all there, a portion of East Marginal Way near the Boeing company remains off limits to drivers, after the storm that swept through Seattle on Sunday took down more than a dozen wooden power poles

It also meant the closure of the South Park bridge, a lifeline for businesses on the south side of the bridge, cut off. The usual crowd at this restaurant, nearly non–existent since Monday.

“For lunch,” said Mely Devresy, a waitress at Ambakity Cocina Mexicana. “Everybody in the businesses, the warehouses down there. They come for lunch, the Boeing people. Yes. So, we miss them over here.”

In April 2019, a cascade of 26 wooden power poles fell onto the roadway and struck a couple driving by. After an independent investigation, Seattle City Light pledged to change the way it rates power poles so that they are replaced more often.

Of the 15 poles that collapsed Sunday, City Light General manager Debra Smith says two were slated to be removed.

“We actually had one pole on site ready to be replaced,” said Smith, “and the weather beat us to it.”

But Smith concedes there may also be a flaw in the design. The poles are top heavy to accommodate the heavy electrical load and they are 80 to 90 feet tall -- to make room for the airplanes Boeing often moves across the roadway.

“But we are going back to the drawing board,” said Smith, “and we’re going to look at whether we need to look at aluminum poles or a different design, set of design criteria for that area, given the height, given the wind.”

But for now, she says they are replacing the poles with new wooden poles while they figure out what comes next.

©2021 Cox Media Group