Bellevue’s NE 12th Street Bridge will re-open to two-way traffic next week. Repair work has restricted the bridge to one lane and one-way traffic since April when contractor crews demolished the old bridge just a few feet away from its newly built successor.
During demolition, a large piece of debris hit the new bridge, damaging a section of girder that helps support it. After examining the damage, structural engineers reduced traffic on the bridge from two-way to one westbound lane as a precautionary measure.
After consulting with numerous structural engineers and considering several repair methods and approaches, WSDOT used a phased approach for repair with crews fixing portions of the girder and then testing it for strength. At one point, crews trucked in large weights to measure the girder deflections to assess the effectiveness of the repair. Tests were successful, and now crews are ready to open the bridge to traffic.
The state is not financially responsible for the repair; Atkinson Construction accepted full responsibility for the damage and will foot the bill.
Crews will close the bridge at 7 p.m. Friday to make final repairs to the girder, restripe the bridge pavement and re-program traffic signals. If all goes as expected, crews will open the bridge by Aug. 23.
The bridge repair has caused no delay for the rest of the $107.7 million construction project. Crews are ahead of schedule and expect to reach a major milestone next month, when they open a new set of ramps just north of the NE 12th Street Bridge. The new ramps will untangle a congestion mess by separating vehicles entering and exiting northbound Interstate 405 between NE Eighth Street and State Route 520 in Bellevue.
WSDOT will completely close northbound I-405 for an entire weekend in September to shift traffic to the new ramps. Once the road re-opens, Bellevue drivers will no longer have access to SR 520 from NE Eighth Street. Instead, they’ll use a new ramp originating from NE 10th Street that will take them directly to SR 520 without merging on to I-405.
See the new configuration here.
