SEATTLE — The West Seattle Bridge officially passed its final safety test on Thursday.
According to the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), the data from this strength test confirms the bridge is strong, safe and ready to reopen on Sunday.
On Tuesday, SDOT conducted the "live load testing" by driving specialized trucks over the bridge and measuring how the bridge responds. Each truck weighed up to 80,000 pounds. About a dozen were driven across the bridge, according to SDOT. That's 960,000 pounds or 275 sedans traveling across the bridge.
"This test adds to what we know from several months of data from our intelligent monitoring system which has been continuously recording data from the bridge 24/7. The bridge has responded as predicted throughout the repair process, as well as in response to changing weather conditions from the hottest days of summer to the coldest nights this past winter without showing any cause for concern," SDOT press secretary Ethan Bergerson said in an email to KING 5.
The final testing follows months of repair work that includes injecting epoxy into structural cracks and applying nearly 60 miles of steel "tensioned" cables across the bridge's structure.
SDOT said it is confident that the repaired bridge will stand strong for decades to come, fulfilling its original intended lifespan.
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