Emergency Closure and Repair of the West Seattle High Rise Bridge

The West Seattle High Rise Bridge was closed on March 23, 2020, under emergency circumstances because of excessive cracking of the primary concrete superstructure supporting the bridge. This paper describes the reasons for the closure and the work performed in the ensuing thirty months to reopen the bridge on September 17, 2022, with primary focus on: condition assessment and the use of structural health monitoring instrumentation, and discussion for context on the following topics: emergency response planning, return to service cost–benefit analysis, repair design and commissioning, and community engagement.