My name is Bob Fleming, and I am very interested in seeing a greatly improved transportation system for Seattle and the surrounding region.

Current Situation

Washington State Highway SR520 runs from an interchange with Interstate highway 5 in Seattle near the University of Washington to Redmond, a distance of roughly ten miles. It is one of two major highways between Seattle and the east side of Lake Washington. The highway crosses Lake Washington on a floating bridge known as the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, or just the 520 Bridge.

The bridge is constructed of a series of floating concrete “pontoons” bolted together end-to-end and held in place by steel cables attached to anchors on the bottom of the lake. There are also elevated bridges at both ends connecting the floating portion with the shore. The elevated portion at the west (Seattle) end is much longer as it passes through a swampy area. The elevated part at each end includes a “high rise” that is a higher bridge to allow boats up to a certain size to pass under. For larger boats there is a draw span in the floating portion. This unique feature includes two sections of roadway that raise straight up several feet and then slide back horizontally over the adjacent sections, opening up space in between for boats to pass through.

Current Problems

Lake Washington is usually fairly calm, but in high winds the water can get quite rough. The bridge runs east and west across the lake, and if there are high winds from the south waves a few feet high strike the south side of the bridge with considerable force. Over the years this has resulted in damage to the bridge, with the bridge shut down on several occasions for repairs. There is also accumulated unrepaired damage that is not yet severe enough to make the bridge unsafe, but engineers report that the bridge is nearing the end of its designed life span and should be replaced soon.

There are several designs for a new bridge, none of them cheap. The estimate currently being tossed around is $3 billion.

The designs differ in whether the new bridge would be four, six, or eight lanes, plus high-occupancy lanes, or maybe space for future bus rapid transit or light rail. There are also different designs for connections at the west end of the bridge, and other design details.

Of course there is an ongoing controversy over which design should be used. Some people want to save money with a four-lane bridge, people living near the bridge want only four lanes to minimize impact on their neighborhood, many drivers using the bridge want as many lanes as possible, and so on and so on.

My Opinions

This is one of the most important highways in the region. I favor six lanes or possibly eight. Sound Transit wants light rail on the bridge, but I favor monorail because it will take up less space on the surface of the bridge—light rail will take up the width of two lanes of traffic but the columns to support a monorail will only take up about a four-foot width.