Oregon Public Broadcasting

The new bridge to Sauvie Island just northwest of Portland opened to traffic Monday.  The old one will be dismantled and removed and should be gone by winter.

But there are many other bridges in Portland that also need work, as Pete Springer reports.

Some Portland bridges, like the Ross Island, are owned and maintained by the state.  Or take the Steel Bridge – it’s owned by a railroad.

But five of Portland’s bridges over the Willamette are owned and maintained by Multnomah County.

Maria Rojo De Steffey is a Multnomah County commissioner.

Maria Rojo De Steffey: “Our bridges are old.  They are all getting old.  And 75-100 years old and so there are issues.  And bridges are very, very expensive to maintain.”

Rojo De Steffey says it’s easier to come up with funds for incremental work on the bridges than it is to fund replacement of a major bridge like the Sellwood Bridge, which could cost $300 million to replace.

In contrast, the new Sauvie Island bridge cost $42 million.

Rojo De Steffey says that bridge took precedence because cracks were found earlier than they were on the Sellwood, and it’s the only access to the Sauvie Island.

Still, Rojo De Steffey is not crazy about all new bridges.  She calls a proposed new bridge near OMSI, just for light rail, bikes and pedestrians, “outrageous”.

Maria Rojo De Steffey: “I’m very concerned about another bridge to carry light rail.  That’s, that will cost millions of dollars when we have an assest on the ground right now -- the Sellwood Bridge -- that is the busiest two-lane bridge in the state of Oregon.”

The big question for the Sellwood Bridge will still be funding, says Mike Pollen, a county spokesperson.

Mike Pollen: “The problem is that the things that are wrong with the bridge are very expensive to fix if we try to save this whole bridge.  And that is being studied to possibly use part of it.  In fact, the only part we could save is the part over the water.  The parts over land, we don’t think are salvageable.”

There’s already funding to design and acquire the right-of-ways for a new bridge, but no money yet for the construction.  And the longer that takes, the more it will cost.

Multnomah County is predicting a $490 million shortfall for all bridge repairs and maintenance over the next twenty years.

Some of Portland’s oldest bridges, such as the almost 100-year-old Hawthorne, are still in pretty good shape. 

The Hawthorne could use an earthquake retrofit and always needs routine maintenance on its lift mechanisms, but Pollen says it was built to handle the weight of heavy streetcars.

Mike Pollen: “So we’re fortunate that these old steel downtown bridges were designed with streetcars in mind and they do have the structural capacity to last us another 100 years if we keep them painted.”

The county will be relocating the Hawthorne's west off-ramp to create more space for a new county courthouse.

Other upcoming county bridge projects include a new bicycle and pedestrian path on the Morrison bridge, which will also get re-surfacing to make it safer.

Those projects are already funded.