Possibly next spring, but surely by the spring after that, a replacement project will get under way for the rapidly deteriorating, nearly 70-year-old Newport Avenue Bridge over the Deschutes River. Getting there will mean not just a public design review process, but closure of the key east-west link for up to a year of construction, officials said Wednesday.

The Oregon Transportation Commission on Wednesday approved spending more than $4.7 million for the replacement span, one of dozens of city and county bridge projects totaling $300 million under the Oregon Transportation Investment Act of 2003 (OTIA III).

The Newport Avenue Bridge was the only approved project on the state list in Deschutes County. Crook County, meanwhile, will get funding for five bridge projects totaling more than $3 million, half of that for two spans of Ochoco Creek in Prineville. Jefferson County received one project, for a bridge on Park Lane over an irrigation canal, totaling $296,000.

The list of approved bridges by county can be viewed at http://www.odot.state.or.us/otia/pdfs/OTIA3ApprovedBridges.pdf

Local governments are responsible for the design and construction of the bridge projects.

OTIA III uses revenue from increased car and truck fees to finance transportation construction bonds. The $300 million for local bridges will be sold in one issuance of bonds. The legislation mandated that bridge projects funded under the program were selected on the basis of their importance to freight movement.

“These bridge projects are a great example of local communities and state government working together to provide economic stimulus and jobs for Oregonians,” said Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

The local bridge selection process began around the state in July of last year. Local governments submitted applications for funding for individual bridges last October. The Highway Bridge Rehabilitation Committee reviewed the applications to ensure that individual bridges met the criteria for repair or replacement and that they were important to the movement of freight.

The committee solicited input from the Freight Advisory Committee, Area Commissions on Transportation, and stakeholders during the process. The Freight Advisory Committee endorsed the committee’s recommendation on project selection to the Oregon Transportation Commission.

The $300 million for city and county bridges is in addition to $1.3 billion for state-owned bridges approved by the OTC last year. Last week, ODOT announced that it had selected Oregon Bridge Delivery Partners to manage the state portion of the OTIA III bridge program.

Bridge design work yet to come

“This is a big shot in the arm for the city,” said Bob O’Neal, construction manager for the Bend Department of Public Works, upon learning of the project’s funding approval. He said the state funds should cover the entire cost of the span replacement, no matter which design option is chosen, as well as acquiring any needed right of way.

“Most bridges last about 50 years,” O’Neal said, so the Newport Avenue span – the second at that spot, installed in 1936 – has done a yeoman’s job over the years of carrying cars and trucks to the now-burgeoning Westside.

One item brought up during the debate over the Southern Crossing in recent years was the need for another river span to handle east-west traffic during the upcoming Newport Avenue project.

Bridge design work typically takes about eight months to complete, although O’Neal said it could be done in five or six months on a fast-track process. But that’s just one of several complex elements involved in replacing a bridge in the middle of town, over a river that is designated wild and scenic. Right-of-way issues, for example: “There’s a lot of laws surrounding condemnation,” should that be necessary, he said.

The city initially submitted a request to build a four-lane bridge, to replace the two-lane span. But the ULTRA (Use of Land for Transportation Alternatives) process and Newport Avenue design workshops brought the city to the understanding that residents wanted to keep a local neighborhood feel along the roadway. “They didn’t want to go beyond three” lanes, O’Neal said, although a widening still could be needed at the intersection with Wall Street, to the east.

The bridge now carries about 16,000 vehicles a day, so the closure for “eight to 10 months, maybe even a year” will put much of that traffic on nearby Portland and Galveston avenue bridges, as well as the Southern Crossing.

The length of the closure in part depends on discussions with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Division of State Lands. “We’ve got to get a permit to work around that water,” O’Neal said. “They give you an in-water work period.”

O’Neal is more concerned about the fact that the bridge butts up against a small Pacific Power hydroelectric dam. “The abutment touches the dam,” he said,” and while there will be a need to widen the span, “we sure don’t want to breach that dam. I know it’s going to be a little bit of a challenge.”

The city also will work on the bridge’s east side to incorporate a trail that ties into Drake Park.

Current bridge safe, city official says

Like the Southern Crossing, there will be a public process on the span’s design, but there’s one big difference, O’Neal said: “It’s not an issue of, `Are we going to build it or not?’”

O’Neal sought to ease any concerns about the bridge’s current safety.

“It’s not in imminent danger of collapsing,” he assured. “There are some cracks in the abutment, and the deck is deteriorating. The beams have a lot of `de-lamination’ on it. Is it going to fall down? No. Could it be weight-limited? Yeah, it could be.” That would be a problem, as the span is used by freight trucks heading to and from the Westside, as well as dump trucks traveling to and from two gravel pits west of town.

The city uses a “sufficiency rating” to gauge the quality of bridges, with a 0-100 scale. When a bridge falls to 50 on the scale, that’s when replacement plans normally kick in, O’Neal said. The Newport bridge, “the last time we inspected it, was at 21.5. It’s gone downhill quite dramatically in the last 4-5 years. It was at 45 in ’97-98.”

The new bridge will actually be the third to cross the Deschutes at Newport Avenue. The earlier one, a steel girder bridge, is still in use, having been moved to Prineville, where it crosses the Ochoco River, O’Neal said.

The current bridge will enjoy no such second life, though. Being made of concrete, it will be dismantled, with care: “If we put one hunk of concrete into that river, we’ll be diving to get it, I guarantee you,” O’Neal said.

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