Who’s next? Third Everett bridge project on horizon as Edgewater finishes up

The Edgewater Bridge, connecting Everett and Mukilteo, opened to cars this week, but even as the finishing touches on that project are completed, engineers are looking ahead to the next project.

The Edgewater Bridge is the second of a three-bridge replacement plan for Mukilteo Boulevard. The City of Everett retrofitted the Maple Heights Bridge near Harborview Park in 2020. It was old and vulnerable to earthquakes. It spanned a deep ravine. The Edgewater Bridge was in the same shape. It is now replaced.

Up next for Everett bridges?

The Merrill and Ring Bridge is just over a mile to the east. It is 95 years old. It’s 100 feet over another ravine. It’s only 376 feet long, but it is vital to connecting Everett and Mukilteo.

“Edgewater is the second project, and so Merrill and Ring will be the third and final bridge along the Mukilteo corridor, and then we’ll have our forever infrastructure in place for the next 100 years,” Everett city engineer Tom Hood said.

This bridge project is still at the beginning stages.

“We’re only partially funded for construction right now, so we continue through the design process, which will probably take us into 2028,” Hood said of the current timeline, though that could slip, too. “We have some property acquisitions that we need, which tend to take a long time to negotiate. Assuming the funding comes through, we could begin construction maybe in 2029.”

Or potentially 2030.

Lessons learned from first two projects could smooth way for third

Everett principal transportation engineer Dan Enrico told me the city has learned a lot over the first two bridge projects, which should help this final replacement go smoothly.

“We have literally dozens of lessons learned on Edgewater that will help us on Merrill and Ring Bridge, from closures to geo-technical exploration to phasing of the project and communications,” he said.

Hopefully, workers won’t find a buried structure under this bridge. An unexpected structure helped delay the Edgewater Bridge project.

As for the finishing touches on the Edgewater Bridge, contractors still need to complete the new sidewalks. They won’t be done for a few more weeks, and Hood is asking neighborhood walkers to stay off the bridge until the work is finished.

“We certainly don’t want pedestrians on the bridge,” he said. “It will not be a safe condition. Yes, this is still an active work zone, and it’s not yet ready for pedestrians.”

The bike lanes aren’t quite finished either, but riders can share the road with cars.

Chris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here. Follow KIRO Newsradio traffic on X.

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