Lane reductions start this weekend on Aurora Bridge

Meghan Walker Ballard

The Aurora Bridge will drop down to one lane in each direction for 10 weekends this summer while crews repave and paint the 90-year-old bridge.

The land reductions will start tonight, and the work is expected to wrap up by the end of August.

The aging bridge — formally known as the SR 99 George Washington Memorial Bridge — is designated a Seattle landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The repaving work is the second phase of the project to maintain the bridge — crews cleaned and repainted the bridge’s floor beams and stringers in 2016 as part of the first phase.

The bridge’s last paint job was in 1985, and the old, lead-based paint is peeling and flaking off, falling onto the homes below and into the lake. The peeling paint exposes the bridge’s steel to air and water, which has caused rust and corrosion.

The closures will begin each Friday at 7pm (starting tonight, May 31) and last until 5am on Mondays, weather-dependent. There will also be occasional nighttime closures from 9pm to 5am Monday to Thursday to allow crews to secure platforms beneath the bridge.

The current work schedule will include the following weekends:

  • May 31-June 3
  • June 14-17
  • June 28-July 1
  • July 12-15
  • Aug. 9-12, 16-19 and 23-26

For more background info, visit WSDOT’s project website. If you want to stay updated on the progress, sign up for email updates from WSDOT.

15 thoughts to “Lane reductions start this weekend on Aurora Bridge”

  2. This may make it a pain to get around for a while but it’s nice to see some investment in infrastructure. Lord knows we need to fix our roads and bridges!

        1. Electricity isn’t created out of the ether. The lack of vision of “Trumpland” that embrace cars as a “must have” is truly frightening.

          1. Computers and cell phones are horrible for the environment. You should stop using both immediately.

          2. I don’t own a cellphone and I only use shared computers at the public library. Owning either individually is extremely selfish and narcissistic.

          3. So you spend all day at the library so you can make poorly reasoned arguments on this blog? Sucking up that much time on shared computers ins extremely selfish and narcissistic.
            You should be out educating people on how to live a straightedge life or working to make your vision a reality.

          4. Freja skipped that day at Evergreen when they covered the concept of the “Master’s Tools”, and like most current Seattle residents she seems ignorant of the concept of the “Progress Trap”.

            Economic Growth = Population Growth
            Open Borders = Massive Population Growth
            Mexicans love big trucks, not weak gringo cars
            Liberals tout our explosive economic growth as a “good thing” while also hand wringing about the whales killed by the shipping freighters – that pollute MUCH more than cars globally, btw.

            You need energy to power the vehicles to move merchandise, and if your fancy investment portfolio is going to keep your comfy in old you age you will naturally support said commerce, no matter how short-sighted it is. Going Green is big fraud for liberal cultists who use this ideology to punish their political opponents.

    2. Diversity Gods only care about taxation, not proper usage of funds for public safety.
      Maybe we could get more Fed money if our “leaders” didn’t flout the law with illegal violations of immigration policies.

      1. You are a small, sad, little man who brings nothing of value to the conversation or community. Please stop trying to engage me in conversation because like everyone else you encounter, I’m done with you and will ignore you from this point onward.

        1. Why are you size-ist? And why do you shame people with Depression – though, unlike the Prog Cat Mommies I do not suffer from it.
          Are you pretty large, Freja? Sounds that way.
          All those excessive calories cost fuel to ship to your market and puts more carbon in the atmosphere.

          “Healthy At Any Size” is a planet destroying lie.

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