WSP apologizes after I-90 road closure causes huge impact

KING COUNTY, Wash. — Washington State Patrol issued an apology after a really tough weekend during the closure of the westbound Interstate 90 floating bridge.

State patrol sent out a letter on behalf of Captain Ron Mead, commander of operations in King County, that said, in part, “after learning of the unintended but enormous impacts this closure was having on people reaching Mercer Island Friday afternoon, the WSP and Washington State Department of Transportation began working with the Mercer Island Police Department to mitigate these impacts, but regretfully the volume of traffic made these mitigation efforts challenging at best.”

State patrol said it had regular meetings with WSDOT and Mercer Island officers over the weekend on how the closure would be managed but their efforts “fell short of public expectation(s).”

WSP said it did not want to point fingers or lay blame as to what caused the situation.

WSP said it was a complicated project and some of the issues “now seem obvious.”

“Suffice it to say, we now recognize that we could collectively have done better in all aspects leading up to and after the closure and that we (WSP/WSDOT) grossly underestimated the impacts this closure would have on traffic and more importantly, those stuck in it,” a letter from WSP stated in part.

Officials said they failed to meet their goals for the closure and will address lessons learned for better management and mitigation of such closures in the future.

The letter ended by saying, “We can and must do better.”

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