Expect lane closures this week on the Ballard Bridge for routine maintenance

There will be routine maintenance this week on the Ballard Bridge which will have some traffic impacts.

The work is scheduled for Wednesday, April 13 and Thursday, April 14. SDOT says the crews will be conducting an under-bridge inspection using a truck with a large movable arm and work platform, which allows the inspection team to get under the bridge deck.

The work this week will happen from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m to avoid rush hour traffic, and will have the following impacts:

• One lane of traffic will be closed at a time. The work may affect either southbound or northbound traffic, but not at the same time.
• Maintenance will not affect bridge openings for boats.   
• The bike and pedestrian pathway will remain open for most of the time during this work. People may be asked to dismount and walk their bike through the work area, or briefly wait while heavy equipment is moved across the pathway.

The work comes just a week after the Ballard Bridge was closed for over an hour during the evening commute, which ensnarled traffic around Ballard, Fremont, and Queen Anne for several hours last Thursday.

SDOT tells My Ballard that the bridge couldn’t be lowered all the way and locked into a closed position, which triggered a safeguard cutting off power to the bridge’s lifting mechanism. A bridge electrical expert inspected the problem and was able to clear the fault and return power to the bridge’s lifting mechanism, which allowed the bridge to be lifted, lowered, and locked back into position.

SDOT is still investigating the underlying cause of last week’s incident but says one possibility is that an object became caught in the moving parts of the bridge, and then dislodged on its own when the crews raised and lowered the bridge.

Photo: SDOT