At a community event in South Park on March, 7 to thank those people who made the funding of a replacement bridge to the community, more people ended up on stage than were in the audience as King County Executive Dow Constantine gave all those he mentioned a special award.

Constantine and 8th Dist. King County Councilman Joe McDermott both spoke at the event

"Today was a great day with King County accepting the agreements with the city and the port in freeing up our own funds legally to be used for the bridge. In getting to open the bids tomorrow we will be reconnecting South Park with the rest of the community through the bridge, opening up the traffic and revitalizing the neighborhood, " said McDermott.

He was referring to the final permit being processed on Monday, which will permit bids to be opened for the project.

"There was a real failure last June when the bridge closed, and I think everyone's sorry that it got to that point at all, that redoubled efforts and commitment to make sure that we got to where we are today, to put together over $130 million to build the new bridge."

McDermott give credit to Senator Patty Murray "for coming up with $34 million in a federal Tiger II grant, (..)" and said of Constantine that he "deserves a huge amount of credit for coming as safety reports were coming back about really needing to close the bridge, using that to pressure everyone to come to the table and come up with the money."

For himself Constantine was succinct. When the bridge closed he signed a pledge, in blue paint no less on a tavern wall, vowing to get the money. "I said we'd get this done. I even painted it on the side of the County Line Tavern, and we're getting it done," he said.

The South Park Advisory Council members were all recognized and brought on stage, and were literally given a piece of the bridge, to thank them for their efforts.

In his remarks to the crowd Constantine he said, "We needed partners like everyone in this room," and noted the 1250 petition signatures in support of our Tiger II application, 160 individual letters of support and many, many people who provided their support by providing video testimony."

As a traffic artery, the South Park Bridge, prior to it's removal carried close to 25 thousand cars daily across the Duwamish River.

The plan for the bridge is to break ground on May 5, with the opening scheduled to take place in the middle of 2013.

In closing the event, Constantine said, "I look forward to seeing everybody in this room for what promises to be the most festive Cinco De Mayo ribbon cutting ever!"

You can see before and after images (artists renderings) for the project here.

And follow the project on the King County page for it here.