On February 28, 2001, the Nisqually earthquake struck the Seattle area with strong shaking that caused signs of visible damage on the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The freeway was shut down for inspections, which found small cracks and other minor damage to non-structural elements that allowed it to reopen within 26 hours. Four more closures were ordered later in March and April due to pieces of concrete dropping onto the streets below, requiring emergency repairs to add steel rods to reinforce the columns. The first repairs were completed in November at a cost of $1.8 million and a set of new vehicle weight restrictions were implemented; in total, $14.5 million was spent on various repairs due to earthquake damage. Annual inspections and continued monitoring found that the earthquake had caused settling of up to into the soil and weakened connections between the columns and highway decks. Additional investigations also found unrelated damage to the underlying seawall, which would need to be rebuilt to prevent a resulting collapse of the viaduct.