The April 2 grand opening celebration of the new state Route 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington will feature family-friendly, interactive exhibits and displays showcasing the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) involved in building a floating highway.
Festivities on the new 1.5-mile-long bridge kick off that Saturday morning with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony. The bridge will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Throughout the day, visitors can stroll across the car-free roadway while stopping at a variety of interactive, STEM-focused visitor stations. Grand opening attendees will have the opportunity to explore the large floating structure on foot while enjoying the fare from local food trucks.
Gov. Jay Inslee will participate in the celebration’s historic ribbon cutting and credits local communities for making this day possible. “This vital bridge not only connects local communities,” he said, “but also brings us closer to completing much-needed SR 520 improvements all the way to I-5 made possible by last year’s Connecting Washington transportation package. This bridge is possible because our communities and people came together to see it through.
Sponsor Delta Air Lines will be on hand at the celebration to hand out passports that encourage people to stop at the bridge’s visitor stations. Participants will be eligible to win domestic and international airline tickets for two.
There are two grand opening events that require advance registration and payment:
•On Saturday morning, there will be a community fun run and walk sponsored by the Virginia Mason Heart Institute.
•On Sunday morning, April 3, the celebration closes with the Cascade Bicycle Club’s Emerald City bicycle ride that has an 8-mile and a 20-mile option. Both rides will leave from the University of Washington and cross the SR 520 bridge and back. The longer ride will continue through car-free routes of Downtown Seattle and back to the university campus.
The old and new floating bridges will close to traffic but be accessible from both sides of the lake via shuttle buses (520golong.com/getting-there.html). Once shuttled onto the bridge, visitors can walk the entire length of the structure —either on the bridge’s westbound traffic lanes or on the adjacent regional shared-use path, which eventually will carry pedestrians and bicyclists between Seattle and the Eastside.
The new SR 520 floating bridge has a 14-foot-wide, shared-use path, shoulders for disabled vehicles and three lanes in each direction.
The bridge deck is supported by 77 large pontoons connected to 58 anchors weighing as much as 450 tons each. The new bridge is more structurally sound than its predecessor, capable of resisting sustained winds up to 89 mph. The bridge height will allow watercraft with masts up to 70 feet to pass under its east navigational channel, eliminating the need for a drawspan and traffic-stopping drawspan openings for boats to pass through.
The new SR 520 floating bridge will open to vehicle traffic in stages, using two weekend highway closures after the grand opening celebration. Once the new bridge opens to traffic, crews will decommission the old bridge and remove it from the lake in sections.
For more information, visit 520golong.com.