All northbound lanes on Seattle’s First Avenue South Bridge will shut down for three days starting Monday morning while crews weld steel plates over cracks discovered during recent inspections, forcing tens of thousands of commuters to find alternate routes through an already congested transportation network.
The Washington State Department of Transportation will close the bridge from 5 a.m. Monday through 8 p.m. Wednesday while workers install reinforcement plates over structural damage found in the bridge deck. WSDOT already closed two northbound lanes on Feb. 18 after inspectors identified the cracks, but the full closure allows crews to complete more extensive repairs that can’t be done with traffic present.
Derek Lee, who commutes over the bridge regularly, said the timing creates a nightmare scenario for West Seattle residents. “There’s already a lot of rush hour traffic coming down First Ave. Bridge. To close it during those hours, that’s going to put West Seattle into a backup,” Lee said. WSDOT acknowledged the daytime closure creates hardships but said crews need daylight hours for both safety and efficiency when working with welding equipment and heavy steel plates.
The bridge won’t return to normal operations even after Wednesday’s reopening. WSDOT plans to impose a temporary 25 mph speed limit on northbound traffic for several weeks while engineers monitor how the repairs hold up under traffic loads. The reduced speed will create additional delays for the roughly 48,000 drivers who use the bridge daily.
Monday’s closure represents only the first phase of a three-part repair schedule. WSDOT expects to conduct another full northbound shutdown in mid-to-late April to replace nine steel grate panels that inspectors determined were in the worst condition. Beyond those temporary fixes, the agency plans a complete replacement of the bridge’s north deck sometime in 2027, which will require far more extensive closures.
The First Avenue South Bridge work arrives while commuters already navigate reduced capacity on Interstate 5, where the Revive I-5 project has narrowed the highway to two northbound lanes at the Ship Canal Bridge. Gene Decker said he’s been avoiding I-5 entirely. “I use SR-99 all the time because it’s so much faster than I-5 in the morning,” Decker said. WSDOT encouraged drivers to use I-5 and I-405 as alternate routes, though both highways already carry heavy traffic during peak hours. The simultaneous closures leave Seattle commuters with few good options for traveling between West Seattle and downtown.
