On Tuesday, July 17, the King County Department of Transportation hosts an important meeting concerning the replacement of the 97-year-old Mount Si Bridge. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Mount Si High School.
Replacing the bridge is one of the most challenging projects currently facing my agency. Six alignment alternatives have been proposed. Four are near the existing bridge and two are upriver. The upriver alternatives would pose significant negative impacts to the environment, and each of the other options also poses challenges.
Here are a few factors making the project so complicated:
– The bridge provides sole access to about 400 homes and is a critical emergency route. It is also a gateway to outdoor recreation, including hiking, fishing, kayaking, and climbing;
– The age of the bridge, impacted by today’s heavier loads, is evident in the rusting steel, rotting timber, corroding metal and extensive bridge deck cracking;
– It has low overhead clearance, narrow lanes, no shoulders or separated sidewalks. It does not meet current earthquake and flood design standards;
– Since the bridge was placed in its current location in 1955, homes and businesses have sprung up along the river that limit the possible alignments for a new bridge;
– There are many environmental concerns to be considered, including water quality, fish habitat, agricultural production and growth management;
– The bridge is a King County Historic Landmark and is important to the visual character of the Valley.
King County owns 193 bridges, and the majority are in the waning years of their useful lives. If it were not for grants from the federal government, it would be impossible for us to fund the necessary upgrades and replacement projects. Federal funds pay for more than 50 percent of King CountyOs bridge seismic retrofits, major maintenance and replacement costs. County staff set out early to obtain federal funding for the Mount Si project. We were successful in qualifying for a federal grant that will pay 65 percent of the project costs, estimated to total almost $10 million.
The federal program funding the grant is for replacement of the old bridge only. Under federal guidelines, the deficient bridge must be removed from the county’s transportation inventory. There is no way the old bridge could continue to be used for regular vehicular traffic – to do so would cause us to lose our $6.5 million grant.
We want to work together with those of you who will be affected by the alignment and bridge design decisions to ensure the replacement bridge is viewed as an asset by the community. We are grateful for the input we’ve received so far, particularly from the local Community Advisory Group.
There has been some confusion about the public involvement process – a process we use for many of our county road and bridge projects. It started with an open-house meeting in April to gather information from individuals and groups. That was followed by outreach meetings to city and county officials, fire commissioners, and representatives of the school district, Chamber of Commerce and historical society.
Next Tuesday’s meeting has been in the works since the beginning of this project. It is specifically to provide information and offer a public forum for citizens to express their views. What we hear at that meeting will be used to help us select the replacement bridge location. After the alignment is selected, there will be additional opportunity for public input as we evaluate different bridge designs, research engineering concerns and plan for construction.
You are always welcome to comment on the replacement project or ask for more information. Your contact is: Barbara de Michele, King County Department of Transportation, Community Relations, 201 S. Jackson St., KSC-TR-0824, Seattle, WA 98104-3856. E-mail can be addressed to: barbara.demichele@metrokc.gov or phone (206) 263-3792.
We consider this bridge project to be one of the highest priorities in King County, and invite you to help us design a span that will last at least another hundred years.
