A sober sequel to the contentious April 27 meeting hosted by King County Department of Transportation Executive Harold Tanigucho on the South Park Bridge closing was played out Tuesday night, May 26, also at Machinists Hall, two miles south of the bridge's south entrance. After 79 years of service, the bridge is still scheduled to close June 30 at 7:00 p.m.

See the West Seattle Herald story on that meeting here:

http://www.westseattleherald.com/2010/04/28/news/update-kcdot-hot-seat-…

This time around, the South Park residents, merchants, and neighborhood activists packed in the room seemed to accept their fate, as they see it, to try to survive on an underserved island with no practical way out, once the bridge is barricaded, then dismantled.

About 20,000 cars and trucks cross the bridge each day. When it closes, many of those vehicles will be diverted to First Avenue South Bridge. Traffic concerns about this alternate route have escalated, especially since boats may pass under during rush hour causing gridlock.

Unlike the last meeting, elected officials backed up Taniguchi, including King County Executive Dow Constantine and State Senator Joe McDermott. All three spoke about trying to get some city, county, and state funding in place by August 23 when King County submits its request to the Federal Government for $30-$40 million for the bridge in the form of a TIGER-2 Grant.

The county requested a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery Discretionary Grant Program, or TIGER Grant, for $99 million last year and was turned down. The less ambitious TIGER-2 Grant is plan-B, to be backed up with other, non-Federal money, to reach the $155 million cost of a new South Park Bridge, which is "shovel-ready," designed, and zoning-approved by a myriad of organizations, including Tribal concerns and the Coast Guard.

Constantine has been a vocal supporter of building a new South Park Bridge, and said he flew to Washington, D.C. three times for the purpose of trying to secure funding for the project. He said that Senator Patty Murray has been a close ally on this and has already found about $8 million, a good start.

When the Q & A starting picking up some steam at the meeting, the audience's frustration toward public officials escalated. Then Bill Pease stood up to squelch the finger-pointing. Pease is with the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle and president of the South Park Bridge Committee.

"Those of us working on this bridge for 7 to 10 years appreciate what Dow's been doing," said Pease. "I think it's refreshing that you trust the engineers and you're working on finding the funding," he added, directing his remark to Constantine.

"This bridge is shutting down," Pease said. "It can't be glued together. It can't be wired together. Anyone who's ever gone into the guts of the bridge knows that the concrete is crumbling, the steel is rusting. It's not because of a maintenance problem. It was built poorly in the beginning. It wasn't Dow's fault. It's not Harold's fault. It's not our fault. It's lasted longer than it was supposed to. The seawater to make the concrete, the salt, makes everything corrode. It's falling apart. We need money. We need it now. If we don't get it now, we will never get the money and we will never have another bridge."

After the meeting, Goodspaceguy Nelson, a Boulevard Park political activist who has run for office in numerous area elections, told the West Seattle Herald that he lived in Germany while his dad served in the military, and then in Sweden, and was disappointed that the South Park Bridge lasted only 80 years.

"I have seen bridges in Europe built centuries ago still in use," he said. "They repair them with stone and take care of them over time." He told Constantine that he wished there was a way to repair the current bridge, but Constantine and other speakers said that the time for spending more money on bridge repairs is over.