Why the Bickford Avenue Bridge Can't Be Repaved Like the Rest of Bickford

North Bickford Avenue has a new surface this fall. Work began on September 16, paving was finished by September 25, and the city reported on October 23 that the new lane markings were done. The Bickford Avenue Bridge over State Route 9 got none of that work. In the Snohomish County Tribune's words, drivers there cross "noisy steel plates" and feel "a bouncing sensation as heavy vehicles pass."

The two stretches look different because the same fix can't work on both. Under the bridge's road surface is a structure that flexes, and it is only allowed to carry a thin layer of asphalt. The agency that owns that structure has not set aside money to replace it.

Two Owners, One Stretch of Road

The Washington State Department of Transportation owns the Bickford Avenue Bridge. The City of Snohomish is responsible for keeping the road surface on top of it drivable. That split decides almost everything else in this story. The city does the paving, but WSDOT decides how thick the paving can be, and the city has to follow WSDOT's specifications.

On North Bickford, the city controls the whole job. Its overlay project ran from 30th Street and Fobes Road north to the city limits. It included grinding, repaving, restriping, and new vehicle-detection cameras at the 30th and Fobes signal to replace the old induction loops buried in the pavement. Those cameras only detect traffic for the signal, and as of the October 23 update the city still had no installation date for them. The city also says construction may continue into November depending on weather.

The Asphalt Kept Getting Thinner

The bridge's paving problem goes back several years. According to the Tribune's February reporting:

1. The original road surface on the bridge had 8 inches of asphalt.
2. In 2021, WSDOT told the city to pave less than that at the center of the bridge.
3. In 2022, WSDOT cut the limit to 3 inches. The city removed all the old asphalt and laid 3 inches of new material to that specification.

Former Public Works Director Nova Heaton told the Tribune a typical roadway should last 10 to 20 years, depending on conditions and maintenance. The 2022 surface on the bridge began breaking down within six months and quickly formed potholes. City officials say the cause is the deck flexing under traffic, which breaks up the asphalt on top. Heaton put it plainly in an email to the paper: "Without a solid support surface, the asphalt will continue to crumble."

Thinner asphalt puts less weight on an aging structure. It also gives the road surface less material to absorb the flexing. The city's crews have kept patching since 2022. The Tribune reported the city spent about $75,000 resurfacing the bridge and still spends an average of about $1,000 a month maintaining that one section.

Why the Steel Plates Make It Harder

The steel plates are the city's short-term answer, and they work against the reason the asphalt was thinned in the first place. The Tribune's April article gave the numbers. Asphalt weighs 140 to 147 pounds per cubic foot. Steel weighs roughly 490 pounds per cubic foot, about three and a half times as much.

City Operations Manager Tim Cross said there are practical and structural limits to how much plating can be added.

"Excessive or prolonged use can introduce additional stresses and other issues, which is why their use is carefully evaluated and limited."

By the March 17 council meeting, City Administrator Ken Klein said the potholes were growing beyond the plates. As the Tribune reported in April, he said staff were sending him pictures every day and that the bridge was "getting worse and worse every day." The trouble has also reached the highway below. The city's letter to legislators described an after-hours emergency call when pieces of asphalt fell onto State Route 9.

The Stopgap Keeps Getting More Expensive

The city has tried to pay for something better than plates and patching, and each estimate has come in higher than the last. Over 2026 the figures went like this:

The $350,000 request went to state Sen. John Lovick and state Reps. April Berg and Brandy Donaghy. Mayor Aaron Hoffman said concrete decking "will add extra weight, but it'll stop the shaking, which would then stop our paving problems." The state denied it, along with the city's requests for the Snohomish River Trail and for sidewalks on Terrace Avenue. Klein said approval was hard to get in the middle of the state's two-year budget cycle. The bridge project appeared in the House and Senate transportation proposals but was left out of the final package.

Hoffman said the jump from the July figure to about $2.5 million came from costs the earlier numbers left out. He stressed that $2.5 million is a rough number, not a formal project estimate.

What WSDOT Says the Real Fix Is

WSDOT's answer is replacement, with no date attached. In September, agency spokesperson RB McKeon told the Tribune that the existing structure "was not designed for the traffic volumes and truck use the route carries today." He said the bridge still functions and carries legal loads, so it competes for limited preservation funding with bridges around the state that have more urgent structural problems. McKeon said talks with the city about the type, size, and location of a replacement were preliminary and that "there is not yet a funding plan or project schedule to share."

That leaves the city with a choice it doesn't fully control. It can spend city money on a repair to a state-owned bridge, or keep patching and plating until a replacement arrives. Hoffman described what's at stake:

"If a replacement is potentially a decade or more away, we cannot simply accept the current road surface conditions for that length of time."

On safety, both agencies have said the structure carries normal traffic. WSDOT staff observed rot in some timber beams during a site visit, and the city's letter to legislators reports they also said the structure remains safe for vehicle loads. Because the bridge supports legal loads, it doesn't need a posted weight limit. Overweight vehicles traveling on a permit are limited to 20,000 pounds per axle. Cross told the Tribune in April that the city "would take immediate action, including restrictions or closure, if conditions indicated an unacceptable risk to public safety," and that WSDOT's Bridge Division routinely inspects the timber elements.

Who Else Shares the Span

City officials call the bridge a major access point into and out of Snohomish. Bickford Avenue is also a primary Community Transit route, and officials have said losing the bridge would seriously disrupt both transit service and traffic. Community Transit's Route 271, which runs between Gold Bar and Everett Station, lists stops on Bickford Avenue, including Bickford Ave and Weaver Road.

People on foot have even less room. The bridge has no sidewalk. The city wants to add one but needs WSDOT to agree. In 2022, The Everett Herald described the bridge's shoulders as about three feet wide, separated from traffic only by a painted stripe, and especially difficult for wheelchair users. A September 30 letter in the Tribune argued that pedestrian safety has been left out of the repair discussions. The writer asked the city to use pedestrian-safety tools it already uses elsewhere in town.

Where Things Stand Heading Into November

As of the latest reporting, the city has not decided between a short-term repair and continued patching, and WSDOT has not released a replacement schedule. The October 20 City Council agenda included the mayor's address on the preliminary 2027–28 budget. The October 6 minutes in that packet record a presentation of the proposed Public Works budget. The city's budget pages and council agendas at snohomishwa.gov are where any money for bridge work would show up first.

On North Bickford, the remaining work is the signal cameras at 30th Street and Fobes Road. The city's North Bickford Avenue Overlay page carries project updates. Questions go to Project Manager Colbi Bertrand or Public Works Inspector Nathan Callen at (360) 913-4842.

When neighbors ask how a slow-moving project like the Bickford Bridge might affect a home sale, a straight answer helps, and it helps more when the facts are ready before buyers start asking. If you're thinking about selling, Wendy Bremer can sit down with you and go over your home's value and how it presents. Request a free home valuation and staging consultation.