South Park Bridge gets rebuilding money from feds

With the unfurling of a large banner reading "Thank You South Park," residents of the South Seattle community cheered the news Friday that there is enough money to replace the troubled South Park Bridge.

Sen. Patty Murray announced King County is receiving $34 million in TIGER II (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) stimulus money to replace the bridge, which closed last summer.

After missing out on two earlier stimulus rounds, King County applied for $36.2 million to complete a funding plan to build a new $131 million bridge. It received almost the entire amount.

"You can hear the cheers all the way to Washington, D.C.," Murray told the boisterous crowd, which gathered at the foot of the bridge to hear the announcement. "The community deserves an economic jolt and deserves to have its voice heard. This is a victory for jobs today and local small businesses. This community is going to keep on living."

The bridge closed because of severe deterioration and failure of government agencies to prioritize money for the new bridge. Local officials this year committed $100 million.

The $34 million will provide all the federal funding needed to rebuild the bridge. King County Executive Dow Constantine said the new bridge should open in May 2013. "I thought a few months ago this was an impossible task. But we have done it, thanks to Patty Murray."

Murray said the announcement has nothing to do with her tough re-election campaign, and the schedule for announcing the TIGER grants was set months ago.

"This has nothing to do with politics," she said. "The timing of this is exactly when we said it would happen."

King County has said that with the federal money the project is "shovel ready" and will go out to bid. The county hopes to begin construction next spring.

"We will celebrate tonight. Everyone came through, and it feels good," said Bill Pease, president of the South Park Bridge Group.

Dagmar Cronn, president of the South Park Neighborhood Association, said, "This is a fabulous day. We've been working on this for 10 years. The new bridge can't come soon enough for us."

King County closed the 79-year-old bridge June 30 because its concrete is failing and its pilings weren't sunk into solid footings when it was built. The 2001 Nisqually earthquake caused major damage, and the Federal Highway Administration gave the bridge one of the worst safety ratings in the state.

The bridge crosses the Duwamish River and provides a vital link between East Marginal Way South and Highway 99.

In February, the federal government rejected the county's request for $99 million in stimulus money to pay for most of the replacement costs, giving money instead to Seattle's Mercer Street project.

Murray created the TIGER grant program in 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The closure has hurt businesses in South Park because 20,000 vehicles used to cross the bridge daily. The South Park neighborhood is home to 3,700 residents and 115 businesses.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com