Spokane Street Viaduct

The Spokane Street Viaduct is a freeway connecting the West Seattle Bridge to Interstate 5. It runs above South Spokane Street in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle and is generally four to six lanes wide.

Aerial view of the Spokane Street Viaduct taken 2010 (before widening) facing west. The Interstate 5 interchange is in the foreground, and the West Seattle Bridge is in the background.

The viaduct was one of Seattle's first freeways, opened in 1945. Over the course of the next few decades, other traffic-separated roadways were built to create a continuous roadway between West Seattle and Beacon Hill, such as the "Fauntleroy-Southwest Spokane Street Viaduct" (which opened in 1965).[1] Upon completion of the high-rise West Seattle Bridge in 1984, the road comprising the Spokane Street Viaduct, the West Seattle Bridge and the Fauntleroy-Southwest Spokane Street Viaduct was referred to as the "West Seattle Freeway". However, a series of fatalities led to recognition that the aging Spokane Street Viaduct portion was unsafe to be used as a high-speed roadway.[2] In 1997, the Seattle City Council unanimously adopted a resolution to lower the speed limit and to request that the WSDOT remove the word "Freeway" from signs marking the entrances to the Spokane Street Viaduct and the West Seattle Bridge.[3][4]

From 2008 to 2013, the Spokane Street Viaduct section between Interstate 5 and State Route 99 was rebuilt and widened. The widened roadway has three lanes in each direction and shoulders. A new westbound on and off ramp was built at 1st Ave S and replaced the dangerous 4th Ave S off-ramp. A new eastbound off-ramp to 4th Ave S opened August 16, 2010.

The loop ramp from the West Seattle Bridge to northbound State Route 99 was closed on May 2, 2023, due to the formation of a 5 by 4 feet (1.5 m × 1.2 m) hole that left steel rebar exposed.[5] It reopened a week later after the damaged concrete was removed and replaced by WSDOT crews.[6]

Exit list
Destinations Notes
Fauntleroy Way Southwest, 35th Avenue Southwest Ends at an at-grade intersection
Admiral Way Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
Harbor Avenue, Avalon Way Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
Delridge Way Southwest, Southwest Spokane Street - South Seattle College Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
11th Avenue Southwest - Harbor Island, Terminal 18 Westbound exit and eastbound entrance

 SR 99 north		 Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
1st Avenue South Eastbound exit; westbound exit and entrance
4th Avenue South Eastbound exit
Spokane Street, 6th Avenue South Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
I-5 - Portland, Vancouver, BC
Columbian Way, 15th Avenue South Eastbound exit and westbound entrance

See also

References
  1. "Seattle Municipal Archives Digital Collections : Textual Record : The West Seattle freeway / A design study brief [Doc_9686]". archives.seattle.gov. Retrieved 2022-06-22.
  2. "Spokane St. Viaduct: Aging Relic Among Modern Highways -- 10 Die In Crashes Since '87". Seattle Times. June 10, 1993. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  3. Brown, Charles E. (April 7, 2008). "Bumper to Bumper: Dalai Lama, Bus a miss, Name that bridge". The Seattle Times. p. B1. Archived from the original on May 28, 2018. Retrieved May 27, 2018.
  4. Seattle City Council (March 3, 1997). "City of Seattle Resolution 29541". City of Seattle Legislative Information Service. Office of the City Clerk. Retrieved May 27, 2018.
  5. Lindblom, Mike; Kroman, David; Phair, Vonnai (May 3, 2023). "Large hole closes northbound Highway 99 ramp from West Seattle Bridge". The Seattle Times. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
  6. Kroman, David (May 8, 2023). "Highway 99 ramp from West Seattle Bridge reopens". The Seattle Times. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
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