Politics & Government
12th Street Bridge to Be Closed Through the Weekend
The Washington State Department of Transportation will close the new 12th Street Bridge at 7 p.m. Friday night (July 15) through Monday morning in order to assess the repairs made to damage caused by demolition of the old bridge.
BELLEVUE - The NE 12th Street Bridge over Interstate 405 will be closed tonight (July 15) and through the weekend to evaluate repairs to the structure, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
The new 12th Street Bridge was damaged when the old adjacent bridge was demolished in April. A piece of the old bridge struck the north side of the new bridge, causing damage to a girder that was 28 feet long by 1 foot high and 2 to 3 inches deep, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation. The bridge has been partially open since as crews have worked to repair it.
The bridge will re-open by Monday, July 18 at 5 a.m., according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
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The bridge was replaced as part of the Bellevue Braids project, which puts new onramps onto Interstate 405 and State Route 520.
The new bridge had to be built higher and longer in order to accomodate the new onramps, officials said.
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About half of the bridge is complete, according to Steve Peer, spokesman for the Washington State Department of Transportation. The new bridge when complete will be 40 feet wider than the old one, with room for bicyclists and pedestrians, according to the Department of Transportation.
Work also being done on Interstate 405 overnight Saturday
Work is also being done on Interstate 405 as part of the "Bellevue Braids" project. Four of five northbound lanes on Interstate 405 will be closed from 11:30 p.m. Saturday to about 8 a.m. Sunday between Main Street and State Route 520.
This will include the northbound onramp at Northeast Eighth Street.
When the road reopens, the Northeast Eighth Street on ramp in Bellevue will take a slightly different path, including between two sets of columns supporting a new ramp at Northeast Tenth Street before joining northbound I-405, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
The work is part of the $107.5 million Bellevue Braids Project, that reshapes I-405 between NE Eighth Street and SR 520 and relieves congestion at one of the busiest interchanges in the state, according to a WSDOT press release.
-- Information from Bellevue Patch archives and the Washington State Department of Transportation
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