Good news for commuters: Cars can again drive across this Tacoma bridge after repairs

Cars can again drive across the Hylebos Bridge, the city of Tacoma announced Wednesday morning.



“Repairs on the Hylebos Bridge (off E. 11th Street in the #Tacoma Tideflats) are complete and the bridge is now open to vehicular traffic,” the city noted in a Sept. 18 post on X (Twitter).

The news comes nearly a month after the city warned that the structure, one of Tacoma’s two movable bridges, would temporarily close to vehicular traffic because of a “technical malfunction.”

Repairs were scheduled to begin Sept. 5, with the bridge expected to reopen the week of Sept. 16, The News Tribune previously reported . It stayed open to shipping vessels during that time but closed to cars.

The Hylebos Bridge, built in 1939 and rehabilitated in 2012, faced repairs in mid-February because a ship had struck it last fall , The News Tribune reported at the time.

City spokesperson Maria Lee told the newspaper on Sept. 18: “Everything’s back to normal.”

The Hylebos repairs were necessary because of the failure of an underwater-cable system, Lee noted via email. That system is how equipment rooms can “talk” with one another and are commanded by the operator room on the bridge’s west side.

The city believes that seawater had crept into the conduit, leading the electrical cables to short-circuit, Lee said.

Repairing or replacing the underwater-cable system would take years to construct and permit, Lee said. It would also carry a price tag in the millions. Instead, a satellite-link system was installed for just under $50,000 to “circumvent the need for use of the underwater cable.”

The exact cost won’t be known until the city gets its billing in October, she added.