The new Sellwood Bridge should open to traffic in late February or early March 2016, project managers told Multnomah County commissioners on Dec. 15. “The schedule is weather dependent,” said county program manager Ian Cannon at a board briefing. “But it looks like we are just a few months from having traffic on the new bridge.”
Despite recent heavy rains, the contractor completed eleven major concrete pours for the deck of the three main arch spans. “We had our fingers crossed going into December, because you can’t pour concrete in the rain for a deck,” noted the county’s owner representative Mike Baker, with David Evans & Associates. “The contractor started the concrete pours around 3 a.m. So we were guaranteed to get concrete at the plant and the trucks could get to our site with minimal traffic delays.”
The project is 88 percent complete, Cannon told commissioners. The next major milestone is opening the new bridge to traffic. Before the new bridge can open, the old bridge will have to close.
“Our tentative plan is to close the bridge to traffic after the evening commute on a Thursday,” Cannon explained. “The contractor will need to remove the jump span that traffic currently uses to transition from the new bridge to the old bridge on the east side. We’re planning a community celebration on that Saturday to invite the public out on the new bridge. Then the contractor will have a lot of work to do on Sunday and Monday before the new bridge opens to traffic for the Tuesday morning commute.”
Recent heavy rains have delayed work in some areas, but the project is still on schedule to be completed by Thanksgiving 2016. Some major work items to complete after the new bridge opens include:
Removing the old bridge and two work bridges
Constructing the north half of the east approach
Building a bike and pedestrian bridge under the west end of the bridge
Landscaping condominiums near the work zone on the east side
The project is on target to meet contracting and workforce goals, project managers told commissioners. “The contractor’s goal is to award 20 percent of total contract dollars to Disadvantaged Minority Women and Emerging Small Business firms,” Baker said. “The contractor is at 17.7 percent for these firms. It’s just a matter of when, not if, they make their goal. We’re close to exceeding $40 million in contracts to those firms, via 122 individual contracts.”
The project has aspirational goals for minority and female participation in the contractor’s workforce. “The percentage of the workforce that is minority is at 28 percent, which is above our 20 percent target,” Baker explained. “Women currently make up 13 percent of our contractor’s workforce, which is one percentage point below our target.” Nearly 250 apprentices have worked almost 100,000 hours on the project, including 35 percent who are minorities and 20 percent who are women.
Commissioners expressed optimism that some of these apprentices may find work on future county projects. “We have two additional projects coming up at the county,” Commissioner Loretta Smith said, referring to the downtown courthouse and health department headquarters. “We would be proud to welcome some of these new journeymen on our new county projects.”
