A contractor painting the Ballard Bridge for the Seattle Department of Transportation is closing the northbound lane of the Ballard Bridge every weekday through the week of December 12 from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. After that, the contractor will close this lane only occasionally until the end of January. Once the painting is done on the east side of the bridge, the contractor will switch to the west side.

The sidewalks on the eastern side of the bridge are also closed daily, and opened as much as possible for weekday evenings and weekend.  There are times when this will not be possible.

When the sidewalk on the east side of the bridge is closed, pedestrians may use the sidewalk on the west side of the bridge. Northbound bicyclists are detoured to the Fremont Bridge or the Ballard Locks because the bridge sidewalks are not wide enough for two-way bicycle traffic. Southbound bicyclists may continue to use the sidewalk on the west side of the bridge.

At some point during the project there will be full bridge closures on weekends, but these have not yet been scheduled.  These closures will be limited to 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. on Saturdays and 12:00 midnight to 6 a.m. Sundays. There will be a maximum of four such weekend closures. 

Last year, SDOT painted the Ballard Bridge approaches (the raised roadways at each end of the bridge). This year SDOT is painting the bascule part of the bridge, which is the portion of the bridge that opens and closes for marine traffic. SDOT’s annual bridge painting program provides for the periodic painting of each of the city’s 20 structural steel bridges.  The painting helps protect the steel surfaces on the bridges from corrosion and other weather deterioration. 

For more information or to sign up for the project updates, visit the project website at: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/bridgepainting_current.htm, or call George Frost, (206) 615-0786.

 Media contact:  Marybeth Turner, (206) 684-8548