When a vital roadway gets knocked out of service, it's our job to get it back open as quickly as possible for drivers, and emergency responders. Fixing something like a bridge fixed is by no means, a small feat. An average of 15,000 vehicles each day use the northbound lanes of the SR 529 Snohomish River bridge from Everett to Marysville. This hard-working blue-collar bridge has been around for 85 years and took quite a beating this weekend when a driver smacked an SUV into a couple of support beams.

For safety, our inspectors closed the northbound bridge until the damaged support beams could be fixed. These are critical pieces that support the bridge deck. Replacement parts can't be ordered out of a catalogue, we had to custom make them from raw steel.















A team of about 30 worked in shifts around the clock to design, fabricate and install a new diagonal and vertical support beam.

We didn't want to risk further stress on the bridge deck, so we needed to park heavy equipment on the ground and use boom lifts to access the damaged support beams. Replacement parts were up to 30 feet long and weighed as much as 1000 pounds. It's really tough to safely get those pieces in place in the driving rain with high winds.















After about 500 combined hours of work, the northbound SR 529 Snohomish River bridge reopened to traffic at about 12:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 4. We don't roll the dice on safety. It's pretty amazing how quickly it all came together. In 81 hours, the bridge went from damaged to repaired. We closed it, stabilized it, designed replacement parts, fabricating and installed them - and only disrupting one event commute for drivers.

How do you know what your commute is going to be like? If you’re like a lot of people, you might check out one of our many traffic cameras. We have several hundred cameras statewide showing road conditions along a variety of big interstates and smaller state highways. Add to that our data loops that give you a color-coded clue of whether traffic is stop-and-go (black) or free-flowing (green), and our travel alerts page, and drivers can get a pretty good idea of what to expect on the road before they ever get in the car.

But some stretches of highway are what we call our blind spots. With no cameras and no data loops, the only way to know what traffic is like is to be there. Or have ESP. And on the highways, the unexpected is rarely good news.

Fortunately for drivers, we’ve recently added to our arsenal of cameras. In February, we brought 18 new cameras online between Everett and Arlington and hooked up one new camera to show conditions at the I-90/SR 18 interchange. But wait, there’s more: Later this month, seven new cameras in Pierce and Thurston counties will give drivers a bird’s-eye view of traffic between Lacey and Joint Base Lewis-McChord. And by June, drivers in southern Thurston County can use six new cameras to check their commute, too.

If you’re adding it all up, that’s 32 brand spankin’ new cameras covering a whopping 36 miles of highway: 16 miles in northern Snohomish County, one new mile along I-90 in North Bend, 11 miles in Pierce County and eight in Thurston County.  Goodbye blind spots, hello travel planning.

If you’re one of those people who’s more curious about how long your commute will take – in minutes rather than black and red dots on a map – you’re in luck, too. Travel times from Tacoma to Olympia (and vice versa) will start appearing Monday, March 12, on our Tacoma and Olympia traffic pages. Add that to the travel times already available on the Seattle Traffic page, and drivers can get a pretty good estimate of how long it will take to travel from Seattle and points north to Tacoma and points south. All with the click of a button (or two).

So the next time you head out for a road trip, or just hit the highway for your morning or evening commute, make sure to check out our new travel times and cameras. You might just save yourself some time (and frustration) now that you can know more before you go.

by guest blogger Bronlea Mishler

As you drive through Marysville on I-5, it might be easy to overlook the little steel bridge just to the east, spanning the Ebey Slough on State Route 529. But if you’re stuck in seemingly never-ending freeway traffic, that little bridge can become a driver’s best friend. Built in 1925, the swing-span bridge across the Ebey Slough gives local drivers the option to avoid I-5 congestion as they travel between Everett and Marysville.

Back in its heyday, however, the span was one of the few options for crossing the Ebey Slough. At the time, the bridge was the pinnacle of then-modern technology. It could pivot open at its center to allow tall boats to pass, then swing closed to allow traffic across. One 11-foot-wide lane in each direction gave drivers ample room, and a three-foot sidewalk gave bicyclists and pedestrians space to cross, too. 

Fast-forward 86 years, and that once-modern bridge now seems narrow – unsuited for today’s wider vehicles – with not enough room for pedestrians and cyclists to pass. And frequent openings for marine vessels can put a serious hitch in drivers’ daily commutes.

Fortunately, a solution is on the way. Last year, crews began work on a replacement Ebey Slough Bridge – this time taller, wider, and built out of sturdy steel girders with a concrete roadway. Standing 13 feet taller than the old bridge, the new span won’t need to open for marine traffic. And with two 12-foot driving lanes in each direction, plus two six-foot sidewalks and two five-foot bike lanes, there’s plenty of room for all types of commuters.

This month marks a major milestone for construction crews as they begin setting 49 girders, each weighing in at approximately 31 tons. It’s more visible work for drivers, too. Most of the work completed since last year has been fairly innocuous: Crews have built temporary work platforms above the slough, drilled deep holes for steel and concrete pilings, and prepared the support structure for the steel girders. Now that the girders are in place, the new bridge is really beginning to take shape – literally. For the first time, the new 680-foot span is beginning to look like a bridge, not just a forest of concrete pillars.

Placing each of the girders – which stand seven feet tall and range in length from 100 to 135 feet – is a time-consuming process. Two cranes pluck a girder from the work platform, carefully guide it into position, and then gently swing it into place atop the concrete pilings. The crews typically set 3 girders per day, and expect to wrap up placement of all the girders by the end of June.

By April 2012, drivers who have patiently (or not-so-patiently) been watching the new bridge take shape will finally get a chance to drive on the span. Crews plan to open the bridge to northbound traffic in April; southbound traffic will have to wait to use the new span until August, as crews wrap up work in those lanes. Once all traffic is on the new bridge, crews will demolish the old steel span.