Everett City Hall building (2024).
EVERETT — Replacing the Edgewater Bridge between Everett and Mukilteo will slip into early next year, the city recently announced.
The bridge spans a 60-foot ravine over a creek. Its replacement will be better able to withstand earthquakes to prevent the risk of cutting off parts of Everett in a seismic event.
Its replacement was due to open around November.
The delays were due to unexpected complications earlier this year while setting up the platform where equipment could be positioned to deconstruct the old bridge and build the new one, city engineer Tom Hood explained to the City Council last week.
The platform is now in place. Demolition began May 5. Crews are now carefully taking the 79-year-old bridge apart.
The city is meeting with its contractor weekly to identify ways to get the timeline back on track.
“We share the community’s pain,” public works director Ryan Sass said last week.
The platform is suspended by steel piles driven into the ravine’s soil. “Unfortunately, we have encountered many unknown obstructions in the ravine as we attempt to drill these piles,” Hood said.
Old timber and concrete posed the obstructions.
Before setting the timeline, “we truly did not know they were there,” Hood said.
The city lists the budget $34 million, with $28 million of that total coming from federal grant funding.
