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The Spokane Street Viaduct is a freeway connecting the
The Spokane Street Viaduct is a freeway connecting the West Seattle Bridge
The West Seattle Bridge, officially the Jeanette Williams Memorial Bridge, is a Cantilever bridge, cantilevered segmental bridge that serves as the primary connection between West Seattle, Seattle, West Seattle and important highways such as Was ...
to Interstate 5
Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels thro ...
. It runs above South Spokane Street in the SoDo
Sodo () or officially Wolaita Sodo (, ) is a city in south Ethiopia. The city is a political and administrative center of the Wolaita Zone and South Ethiopia Regional State. It has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between abov ...
neighborhood of Seattle
Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
and is generally four to six lanes wide.
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
West Seattle is a conglomeration of List of neighborhoods in Seattle, neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington, United States. It comprises two of the List of neighborhoods in Seattle, thirteen districts, Delridge, Seattle, Delridge and Southwest, ...
and Beacon Hill, such as the "Fauntleroy-Southwest Spokane Street Viaduct" (which opened in 1965). 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. In 1997, the Seattle City Council unanimously adopted a resolution to lower the speed limit and to request that the WSDOT
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT or WashDOT, both ) is a governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of transportation infrastructure in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. Establi ...
remove the word "Freeway" from signs marking the entrances to the Spokane Street Viaduct and the West Seattle Bridge.
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 Avenue South and replaced the dangerous 4th Avenue South off-ramp. A new eastbound off-ramp to 4th Avenue South 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 hole that left steel rebar exposed. It reopened a week later after the damaged concrete was removed and replaced by WSDOT crews.
Exit list
See also
* West Spokane Street Bridge, a pair of bascule bridges built in the 1920s that were decommissioned by 1989. *Spokane Street Bridge
The Spokane Street Bridge, also known as the West Seattle Low-Level Bridge, is a concrete double-leaf swing bridge in Seattle, Washington. It carries Southwest Spokane Street over the Duwamish River, connecting Harbor Island to West Seattle ...
, a low bridge over the western fork of the Duwamish Waterway opened in 1991.
References
{{Streets in Seattle Bridges in Seattle Roads in Washington (state)