Judd Creek Bridge to close for six-week resurfacing project

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, June 9, 2026

The heavily traveled Judd Creek Bridge on Vashon Highway SW, just north of Burton, will soon close for a six-week resurfacing project.

For the estimated six-week closure, the roughly 4,700 vehicles that use the bridge each day will have to detour, adding several minutes of travel time.

King County expects construction on the Judd Creek Bridge resurfacing project to begin as early as July 13, according to a June 2 project update. During construction, Vashon Highway SW will be closed around the clock at the bridge, and the closure will apply to all traffic, including vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists and emergency responders.

The closure will take place on Vashon Highway SW between SW 225th and SW 227th streets, just north of Burton. A marked detour will route travelers along SW 204th Street, 111th Avenue SW, SW 220th Street, Old Mill Road SW, SW 232nd Street and SW 228th Street.

Amy Bresslour, a spokesperson for King County Road Services, wrote in an email that the county has been monitoring and maintaining the bridge deck for many years through its regular inspection program.

“These inspections track wear, cracking, and other signs of deterioration and help us determine the right time to intervene,” Bresslour wrote.

The county has said the bridge remains safe for use, but its 72-year-old concrete deck is cracked, prone to large potholes and nearly worn down to the steel rebar in some places, according to county project materials.

Water seeping through cracks and potholes has been rusting the steel beneath the concrete, causing pieces of the deck to break away and worsening the damage. Without the resurfacing project, Bresslour wrote, the bridge deck would continue to deteriorate and eventually require a full deck replacement.

The bridge’s design makes the condition of the deck especially important. The Judd Creek Bridge is a box girder bridge, meaning the deck serves as the top face of the hollow “box” that supports the main structure of the bridge.

“When the bridge deck is weakened it starts to compromise the structural integrity of the bridge as a whole,” Bresslour wrote.

A protective epoxy overlay — a thin coating meant to seal the bridge deck and slow water damage — was installed in 2010 to slow deterioration and extend the life of the deck. But the concrete continued to break apart underneath, Bresslour wrote. By 2019, county crews had to repair more than 20 new potholes in the deck, followed by another round of pothole repairs in 2021.

There are currently potholes on the deck that need repair, she wrote, but the county is waiting for the resurfacing project rather than continuing to patch them.

The work is intended to extend the life of the bridge deck by 30 years or longer, while avoiding a more disruptive and expensive full deck replacement in the near future.

The bridge has remained safe for use, Bresslour wrote, but its deck has shown age-related wear that signaled more significant maintenance would soon be needed.

Contractor crews working for King County will remove the top layer of worn concrete from the bridge deck, including the previous epoxy overlay, repair deeper areas of damage and install a new layer of specialized polyester polymer concrete.

According to county project materials, the work will grind down about a half inch of the existing deck before crews overlay the bridge with about 1.5 inches of new polyester polymer concrete.

The current bridge was built in 1953 by Homer M. Hadley, who also helped conceive the first Lake Washington floating bridge. The first crossing at the site was built in the early 1890s to connect Burton to communities farther north on Vashon Island. That crossing was a simple log float across the creek and was later replaced with a trestle bridge around 1892.

The bridge has undergone several rounds of preservation work over the years. In 1998, there was a lengthy closure for seismic retrofit work, Bresslour wrote. In 2021, the county removed and replaced a damaged load-bearing concrete beam, repaired expansion joints and bearings, and repaved the deck.

Those repairs were needed to keep the bridge safe and functional ahead of the larger resurfacing project planned for 2026, she wrote.

The project is expected to cost $1.6 million and is funded by a Federal Local Bridge grant, with King County matching a small percentage of the funds, according to county project materials.

The resurfacing work is scheduled for summer because the materials require warm, dry weather to cure and bond properly to the concrete below, Bresslour wrote. Paving generally needs temperatures of 65 to 80 degrees or higher, and the bridge deck must be dry for 48 hours before the overlay can be installed. Rain could delay the work for the duration of the rainfall plus two additional days.

The county is also coordinating with the Vashon Island School District calendar to avoid road closures during the school year and minimize impacts on students, families and school transportation.

“Prolonged rain or unusually cool temperatures could slow portions of the work,” Bresslour wrote. “While we’ve scheduled the project during the warmest and driest part of the year to minimize that risk, a very rainy summer could extend the construction timeline.”

The bridge will fully close because the deck is too narrow to keep one lane open while maintaining a safe work area for crews and equipment, according to the county.

Bresslour wrote that King County explored options to keep Vashon Highway SW open, including alternating one-way traffic, but determined the work could not be done safely or effectively unless the bridge was fully closed. The resurfacing and structural work are highly sensitive to vibration, she wrote, and even limited one-way traffic could interfere with the materials and construction process.

The narrow deck would also put crews at risk if vehicles were allowed to pass through the work zone, she wrote.

A full closure will allow the contractor to work more efficiently, reducing the overall construction duration and minimizing the total disruption to the community, Bresslour said.

King County has coordinated with emergency responders, King County Metro, the Vashon Island School District, the Vashon Chamber of Commerce and organizers of the Vashon Strawberry Festival to help them plan for the closure.

For islanders the main preparation is to review the detour route in advance and allow extra travel time during the six-week closure.

The county will continue to share updates as the construction date approaches. Community members can subscribe to King County’s Road Alert system for email or text messages about Road Services work on Vashon Island or check the county’s MyCommute map for active road projects in unincorporated King County.