August 12, 2008

Four years of bridge repairs set to start in gorge


By RODGER NICHOLS
of The Chronicle


     Fasten your seat belts. The Oregon Department of Transportation has begun a four-year project to fix or replace 16 bridges in the Columbia River Gorge.
     They’ll start by replacing two 1960s-era freeway bridges at Mosier Creek and Fifteenmile Creek, building temporary bypass bridges to handle freeway traffic while new permanent replacement bridges are constructed.
     Workers will also make repairs on a bridge on U.S. 97 over Spanish Hollow Creek at milepost 2.5, which are expected to extend its useful lifespan by two decades.
     The Mosier Creek project is scheduled to start shortly and last about two years, concluding in the fall of 2010.
     The Fifteenmile bridge construction won’t start until the fall of 2009, and should be completed by the fall of 2010.
     Workers will also be repairing five more bridges between Cascade Locks and Hood River, and do maintenance paving.
     Bridge work under the $1.3 billion Oregon Transportation Investment Act of 2003 will reach its peak this year in Oregon and is to be completed by 2012.
     The gorge bridges are considered the most challenging.
     “The gorge in itself presents some unique weather challenges. Wintertime can be very wet, especially at Cascade Locks, and the wind always blows one way or another there,” said Ryan Elliott, a project manager with Wildish Standard Paving Co.
     “You can’t pave, and it’s hard to do earth work when it’s real wet out. We’re trying to get much of that earth work out of the way.”
     Twenty percent of the nation’s 600,000 bridges are more than 50 years old, and repairing or replacing them will cost about $140 billion.
ODOT says Oregon has a head start.
     “What Oregon has done the last five or six years is catch the problem before it becomes critical,” said Steve Narkiewicz, a project manager for ODOT. “We’re in the middle of a program to do what they’re now trying to start in other areas across the country.”
     More than 300 Oregon bridges will be repaired or replaced. But a 2007 analysis by the Federal Highway Administration revealed that 1,669 bridges in Oregon are structurally deficient or obsolete.
     All the gorge bridges to be fixed or replaced contain cracks or other deficiencies that don’t put them in immediate danger of collapsing but over time reduce the ability to carry heavy traffic, said Narkiewicz.
     Work has begun at Cascade Locks over a freeway ramp from Highway 30. Wildish crews are preparing a detour bridge that will reroute westbound traffic.
The old bridge will be replaced by a new precast decorative concrete structure.
Work on the bridges in both directions is expected to be completed within two years.
     At the same time, Wildish will work to strengthen five more bridges between Cascade Locks and Hood River.
     The gorge’s designation as a National Scenic Area increases environmental considerations and adds design considerations not necessary for other ODOT projects. The bridges must have minimal environmental and aesthetic impact to meet the permitting requirements by the Columbia River Gorge Commission.
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Information from: Daily Journal of Commerce, http://www.djc-or.com/http://www.djc-or.com/