A group of regional policy makers and the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners will consider the range of alternatives to be studied for an earthquake-ready Burnside Bridge at separate meetings next week. County Commissioners will vote on a narrowed range of alternatives to be studied before a preferred alternative is identified in 2020. The board will also vote on the project’s purpose and need statement. Both meetings will be held in the Multnomah County Boardroom at 501 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Meetings are open to the public and include time for public comment.
- The Earthquake Ready Burnside Bridge project’s Policy Group will meet on Tuesday, October 30 from 1 – 3 pm. The Policy Group is co-chaired by Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury and Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson and includes elected and agency leaders from around the region. It makes recommendations to Multnomah County, which owns the bridge, and to the Federal Highway Administration, which must approve the final project.
- The Board of County Commissioners will consider the range of alternatives and purpose and need statement as part of their weekly meeting on Thursday, November 1, which begins at 9:30 am.
Also on the agenda of both meetings is a presentation on the results of public outreach in September on the range of alternatives and a preview of the environmental review phase of the project, which begins this fall. More than 100 options for crossings were evaluated in a feasibility study. The project team has proposed that three new bridge options and one retrofit option for the existing bridge be analyzed in the environmental review phase of the project, along with a no-build option. The environmental review phase ends with selection of a preferred alternative to design and build.
The purpose of the project is to create a seismically resilient Burnside Street lifeline crossing of the Willamette River that will remain fully operational and accessible for vehicles and other modes of transportation immediately following a major Cascadia Zone earthquake.
For more information, visit www.burnsidebridge.org or follow us on Twitter @MultCoBridges. Meeting materials are posted to the website following meetings. Multnomah County maintains the Burnside Bridge and leads the Earthquake Ready Burnside Bridge project.
