King County opens new Elliott Bridge

King County Executive Ron Sims and local citizens celebrated the opening of an $18 million bridge across the Cedar River east of Renton today. The new Elliott Bridge replaces a narrow, deteriorating 93-year-old span that was still carrying as many as 14,000 vehicles a day.

"It’s bridges like the Elliott Bridge that people depend on every day to get to school and work, and yet we struggle as a region to find the money to pay for,” said Executive Sims.  “If we want to preserve the high quality of life we now enjoy, we must find the will and the resources to pay for basic infrastructure like bridges.”

The Elliott Bridge was at the end of its useful life and was expensive to maintain.  The old alignment had a curved approach road, with a high accident rate on the north side. The new bridge has a useful life of 75 to 85 years.

Sims added that the Elliott Bridge provides an important north-south link for the communities on either side of the Maple Valley Highway (State Route 169), because there are just a handful of routes for motorists to cross the Cedar River. The replacement bridge also provides shoulders and sidewalks for safer access by bicyclists and pedestrians.

The new Elliott Bridge is a vital transportation link that supports tremendous population growth in both the Fairwood and Renton Highlands areas.  Even though the old bridge was open for most of construction of the new bridge, a recent 10-week closure was a major disruption to local residents. Traffic was lined up on both sides of the bridge this morning waiting for it to officially open.

Sims said the impact the temporary closure had on traffic throughout the area shows just how critical it is to maintain the county’s network of bridges.

“This points out just how dependent the region is on its bridges,” said Sims. “King County maintains almost 200 bridges countywide, and we must continue to invest in their preservation and rehabilitation – or our transportation network will grind to a halt.”

Sims said the replacement of the Elliott Bridge is an example of the type of investments the county will continue to pursue in the near future. Given the steady loss of transportation revenues in recent years due to the passage of statewide initiatives, Sims emphasized the need to focus scarce dollars on projects that maintain safety and preserve existing infrastructure, such as bridges and road paving. He will emphasize these types of projects in the 2006 budget.

Also, Sims’ proposed six-year Roads CIP budget will include $120 million for road and bridge preservation, $75 million in traffic and pedestrian safety improvements and $61 million in signal technology to make the most effective use of existing pavement – new technologies for managing traffic can improve traffic flow on major road corridors by up to 35 percent.

"We can be grateful we were able to stitch together the necessary funding to build this bridge before the old bridge became too unstable to keep open," Sims said.  "But this county may not be as lucky in the future if the gas tax measure approved by the State Legislature is not collected. At stake is $2.5 billion to prevent some of our most vital bridges from closing, another $1 billion to improve Interstate 405, and funding to help communities maintain the safety of their roadways."

The new Elliott Bridge was built with a combination of federal and local funds. The old steel truss bridge was originally built in 1912 over the Green River near Auburn. In 1951, it was removed and reassembled at its present location east of Renton.

 Over the years, it had become too weak for heavy trucks. It also had narrow lanes, no shoulders, and limited drivers’ visibility, which resulted in safety concerns and high accident rates. Decades of traffic accidents had damaged the bridge's steel trusses. Below its deck, the bridge was rusting away – its aging infrastructure no longer able to withstand nearly a century of corrosion and modern-day truckloads. There have been weight restrictions on the bridge since it was relocated in 1951.

 The new bridge is located on a different alignment approximately 1,000 feet upstream of the old bridge. It has two 406-foot long spans, and is comprised of steel plate girders and a concrete deck. It has two through lanes, a left turn lane, and 10-foot wide sidewalk.

 As part of the project, the King County Road Services Division built 2,000 feet of new roadway to provide a direct connection - via the new bridge - between 154th Place Southeast/Jones Road and Maple Valley Highway.

“Not only do we have a beautiful new bridge, but we made some great improvements to the habitat along the Cedar River near the bridge,” said Sims.

 As part of the bridge project, two new stream confluences and fish-passable culverts were constructed for two adjacent creeks crossed by Jones Road. Once the project is fully complete, one of those streams – Stewart Creek – will flow through a new open channel rather than through an 800-foot pipe system where it presently flows. 

“Once again, our talented folks in the Roads Division have proven that’s what’s good for motorists can also be good for fish,” said Sims.

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