September 21, 2023

Overlook Walk gets its braces off

Photo by Benjamin Minnick [enlarge]

Braces over Elliott Way were removed over the past week. Remaining falsework will be removed over the next month.

Crews led by Hoffman Construction Co. over the past week have removed 81 steel braces from the section of Overlook Walk that spans the new Elliott Way across from the Seattle Aquarium. For the past year, the braces supported concrete pours for the Overlook Walk structure that in 2025 will connect Pike Place Market with the waterfront.

Overlook Walk is part of the $781 million renovation and rehabilitation of the waterfront overseen by the city's Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects.

A spokesperson from the Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects wrote in an email that the 81 wide flange beams varied in length from 40 to 50 feet, and were removed with specialized equipment modified for the task. This included a Goldhofer 10-line trailer with a 400-ton gantry crane and jacking system, which allowed crews to remove the beams and shoring towers with little headroom clearance while working adjacent to active traffic. The trailer and jacking system carried NessCampbell Crane + Rigging logos.

There still is some falsework over Elliott Way and the sidewalks that will stay in place while crews work on the median in that area. This falsework is expected to be fully removed by mid- to late October.

Photo by Benjamin Minnick [enlarge]

Crews used a Goldhofer 10-line trailer with a 400-ton gantry crane and jacking system to remove 81 braces and shoring towers.

The spokesperson wrote that the roadway and sidewalk on the west side of Elliott Way will reopen when the median work is complete, however, the sidewalk and bike lane on the east side of Elliott will remain closed for safety related to Overlook Walk construction taking place above.

The Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects also reports that crews are busy installing precast walls for a future cafe on the bridge deck.

Overlook Walk's pedestrian bridge to the waterfront will have accessible walking paths, an elevator and informal spaces for people to rest. There also will be the cafe, play toys for kids including slides, and amphitheater-type seating near a promenade that will be part of the new waterfront. Overlook Walk tops Seattle Aquarium's Ocean Pavilion project, which is expected to open in 2024. The project team for Ocean Pavilion is led by LMN Architects, Turner Construction and Magnusson Klemencic Associates.

Photo from Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects [enlarge]

Space for a cafe on Overlook Walk’s bridge deck is being created by craning precast concrete walls into place.

The DJC previously reported Overlook Walk's design team includes Field Operations, Miller Hull, Land Morphology, Dragonfly, MKA, Dark Light, Jacobs, Shannon & Wilson, The Greenbusch Group, WSP, and Green Facades. Field Operations, formerly James Corner Field Operations, is the lead urban design and landscape architecture firm, with Land Morphology supporting the landscape plantings design work.

The reworked waterfront will stretch from Pioneer Square to Belltown. It will have 20 acres of new public spaces, including bike paths, walkways and parks. The most recent schedule shows the new Alaskan Way and park promenade finishing by year end, followed by Overlook Walk and a rebuild of Pier 58 in early 2025, and east-west connections to the waterfront in mid-2025.