SR 520 Floating Bridge Maintenance Facility

This four-story building is designed to support the maintenance needs of the new floating bridge across Lake Washington. The building’s primary role is to serve as the nerve center of the bridge, which includes communications, maintenance, and emergency response functions. The building is embedded in a very steep hillside under the east side bridge span. Natural colors were chosen to help tie the building in with the colors of the hillside and surrounding landscape. Materials were selected to give the building a residential look when viewed from the water, rather than a maintenance facility or utility component of the bridge structure.

Vehicle access to the water is not possible at this location so all materials, equipment and personnel for bridge maintenance must come down through the four-story building via high-speed freight and passenger elevators. The placement of the elevator was carefully designed to reduce the time required for emergency response circumstances.