Montlake Bridge remains closed for repairs – unless you are a sailor, cyclist or pedestrian

Sixty thousand people a day mysteriously disappeared above the Montlake Cut. Well, passing over the Montlake Bridge, of course.

As work continues to replace the grid deck and other “rehabilitations” of the crucial connector on the Lake Washington Ship Canal, the loud noise of construction equipment on the bridge has not stopped cyclists, pedestrians and others without their cars. use an open sidewalk to cross the cut.

Last week, those crossing the bridge may have seen a construction worker wearing a hard hat shaped like a cowboy hat come out of the bridge deck, neck up, to have a conversation with another construction worker kneeling beside it. Meanwhile, boaters passing below saw a crew use an arched gangway to climb through beams, before disappearing behind huge sheet metal covers insulating the entire belly of the bridge. Since the equipment and workers are one leaf of the drawbridge at a time, the other leaf can be raised to allow a tallmast sailboat to pass.

In the fall, phase two begins after the bridge reopens at 5 a.m. on September 3.. As previously stated, the bridge will be in the high position for five weekends when the UW football team is not playing at home. As crews replace mechanical parts on these days, only boats will pass.