Alert 8/22-30: The bike/walk path will remain usable during weekend Spokane Street Bridge work + Sound Transit will close short section of Delridge trail
If you saw a bunch of signs warning about a Spokane Street Swing Bridge closure this weekend, that is only for motor vehicles. The biking and walking path will remain open and usable. Unlike many previous closures, this one actually has nothing to do with the bridge's unreliable swing mechanism. Instead it is to fix the gate, which was damaged in a 2024 collision.
I have seen some confusion from people who saw the big bridge closure signs and assumed that it included the trail, so help spread the word that people will be able to bike across the bridge.
Sound Transit will close tricky section of trail to Delridge
Map from Sound Transit.A separate project will close a short section of the trail that connects Delridge Way SW to the West Seattle trail hub near the bridges, and the detours might be a little confusing.
It is extremely important that you do not try to ride on the ramp to get around this closure. That ramp leads to the high bridge, and there are no exit options beyond this point. You really do not want to end up on the high bridge. I hope Sound Transit is prepared to very clearly communicate this at the site for all the folks who will not have read this post and are perhaps unfamiliar with the area. Because the ramp curves, one could easily assume there would be another exit point just around the bend, but there is not.
To get to 23rd Ave SW (which is a path, not a road as one might assume from the map), make sure to be on the west sidewalk of Delridge Way at SW Andover Street, which is the final traffic signal before the bridge ramps.
It is unconscionable that this area is so dangerous. The whole high bridge design was just mistake after mistake from it's poor structural engineering to the way its elevated section slices through and overly complicates the whole area it passes through.