Responding to the recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said the city's Bridging the Gap program, which voters approved last year, has kept the city's 149 bridges safe and strong.
Over the next nine years, the city will spend $128 million rehabilitating, replacing and retrofitting bridges to better withstand earthquakes and an additional $21 million enhancing inspection and maintenance programs.
Locally, work to preserve the University Bridge - which includes replacing large amounts of cement to keep rebar from rusting - is almost complete.
The city is nearly finished with the replacement of the Fremont Bridge approaches, which also involved seismically retrofitting and strengthening the north approach off-ramp and replacing the bridge's electrical and mechanical drive systems.
Other major bridge projects that will occur in the next nine years include the 15th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 105th Street bridge and the 45th Street viaduct.
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