Electrical Malfunction Leads to Free 520 Crossings Tuesday Morning

The Washington State Department of Transportation reported that toll collection on the State Route 520 bridge was temporarily shut down Tuesday after a power malfunction.

Repair crews got the system working by around 11 a.m., according to WSDOT spokeswoman Patty Michaud, but crews are still working on the sign, which still was not functioning by 1 p.m.

Starting about 12:30 a.m., the toll system sent automated notifications about electrical issues to WSDOT’s vendor, according to a news release. Crews began to address and manage the problem, which continued periodically throughout the night until they shut down the system at around 6:30 a.m., the agency reported.

According to the news release:

Drivers who crossed the bridge before 6:30 a.m. or so will be charged tolls. Drivers who crossed the bridge after crews shut down the system will not be charged. Drivers who have a Good To Go! account can check online to see if they were charged a toll. Please note that it sometimes takes a few hours for toll charges to appear in accounts. Drivers who do not have an account will need to wait a week or two to see if the toll is included on their Pay By Mail bill.

Toll collections will resume on their regular schedule as soon as the system is repaired. Toll rates on the SR 520 Bridge are on a set schedule that varies by time of day.

WSDOT said it is unknown how many transactions were lost during the outage. The agency will investigate the cause of the issue, as well as who might be responsible for lost toll revenue.

—Information from the Washington State Department of Transportation