Herald Staff

Q: Maybe someone in authority can explain the four extra support columns standing uselessly beside the apparently finished overpass at I-405 and Filbert Road in Lynnwood. The two on the north side are complete with concrete, while the southern pair are merely shells of rebar.

Perhaps the solid ones could be topped with pots of petunias or made useful in some other way. The open work of the others could house exotic birds. Those decorative uses could probably survive as well under the inaccessibility and resulting neglect as the good intentions and plans of the designers did under what seems to have been serious inattention by the builders.

A: Bonnie Nau, an engineer with the Washington State Department of Transportation, said the I-405 bridges at Filbert Road are being widened on the inside and outside of each bridge to provide enough width for three lanes and two 10-foot shoulders on I-405 itself in each direction.

"What this person is seeing is the work on the substructure (or columns) on the outside portion of these bridges (or second stage of work)," Nau said. "Once the work in the median is completed and the columns finished, the contractor will be able to begin the work on the upper outside portion of the bridge, including the preparation to set the girders and work on the bridge deck.