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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 cantilevered segmental bridge that serves as the primary connection between West Seattle and important highways such as State Route 99 (and the tunnel through downt ...
to Interstate 5
Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south 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 through the states of Califor ...
. It runs above South Spokane Street in the SoDo
Sodo ( am, ሶዶ) or Wolaita Sodo ( am, ወላይታ ሶዶ) or ( Wolaytatto: ''Wolayta Sodo Ambbaa'') is a city in south-central Ethiopia. The administrative center of the Wolaita Zone. It has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation bet ...
neighborhood of Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
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 neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington, United States. It comprises two of the thirteen districts, Delridge and Southwest, and encompasses all of Seattle west of the Duwamish River. It was incorporated as an i ...
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 Ave S and replaced the dangerous 4th Ave S off-ramp. A new eastbound off-ramp to 4th Ave S opened August 16, 2010.
Exit list
See also
*West Spokane Street Bridge
The West Spokane Street Bridge was a pair of bascule bridges that crossed the west fork of the Duwamish River in Seattle, Washington, United States. The bridges connected the SoDo and West Seattle neighborhoods over the river. The original bri ...
, 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)