SEATTLE, Wash. — The South Park Bridge will re-open Monday morning, but KIRO 7 is getting a sneak peek at this revamped vital lifeline across the Duwamish waterway.
This is the first time we've been allowed on the new South Park bridge with our cameras, and we're told this powerful structure puts the original to shame.
"Oh it's way better,” Deputy Project Engineer Tim Lane told us from the belly of the bridge. “The biggest thing is the old bridge had no seismic design -- zero-- because they didn't do that back in 1929. This bridge is designed for a quake that comes every 975 years so a pretty big earthquake.”
The $134 million draw bridge that operates -- as Lane describes it -- like a see-saw, almost didn't happen.
“We started the project back in 2002,” he explained, but the funding wasn't secured until 2010 and after the old bridge was torn down. Then construction was delayed and businesses started to panic, saying South Park was effectively cut off from the rest of Seattle. Some told KIRO 7 in 2010 they didn't think they'd make it.
"As far as we know and we've checked in with them a lot there's nobody that went under. That's not to say they didn't have tough times,” Lane told us.
We wanted to find out just how tough. A tire store and pet shop, who both told us they were worried, are still here. So is a discount grocery. An employee told us the bridge can't open soon enough. But quite possibly nobody is as happy as the people who have been trying to get it built for more than a decade.
"How exciting? Can you see these goose bumps? I'm so excited, I've been waiting so long for this,” Lane concluded.
The bridge officially opens to public traffic at 6 a.m. Monday and we'll be there.
KIRO
