Traffic Advisory Update: All roads are now open in southeast Sammamish after emergency closure
While BPA was performing scheduled maintenance to replace conductor, or transmission line, along a de-energized transmission corridor from Issaquah to Sammamish, Washington, a temporary structure used in the process failed, resulting in the old conductor falling to the ground. BPA’s lines pass over the distribution lines of Puget Sound Energy, and the falling conductor resulted in a temporary outage on PSE’s system.
The piece of equipment that failed is known as a traveler, a large, 36” diameter pulley that the conductor is pulled through. BPA is coordinating with the cities of Sammamish and Issaquah as the line failure forced the closure of several roads in the area.
The safety of the public and our work crews are our top priority. BPA is actively working to remove the old transmission line from the road and allow traffic to resume in impacted areas. This update is as of 3 p.m., Friday, Aug. 13.
We have traffic control at the following locations:
- SE 24th Street
- SE 28th Place
- SE 30th Street
- SE 32nd Street
- SE Klahanie Blvd
- Klahanie Drive SE
- Issaquah Fall City Rd
- Old Black Nugget Rd
The latest information on closures will be passed onto the impacted communities.
BPA is upgrading a 70-year-old transmission line corridor that is critical to grid reliability and safety.