New Sellwood Bridge to open March 1

[Sub-Urbanite]

Only a few more weeks of holding your breath crossing the Sellwood.

You may recall the Old Sellwood Bridge includes 122-year-old girders from the First Burnside Bridge.

[The Ghostbuster]

Does the new bridge look as ugly as the old one did in Google Streetview?

[Sub-Urbanite]

[Thunderbyrd316]

   I just went past the west end of the bridge on hwy. 43 a few hours ago. It looks to me like there is still quite a bit of work to be done before they will be ready to open the bridge. I am having trouble believing it will be ready in just 4 more weeks, even if allowing for work to continue past that time on the interchange at the west end of the bridge.

[Sub-Urbanite]

   I just went past the west end of the bridge on hwy. 43 a few hours ago. It looks to me like there is still quite a bit of work to be done before they will be ready to open the bridge. I am having trouble believing it will be ready in just 4 more weeks, even if allowing for work to continue past that time on the interchange at the west end of the bridge.

If y'all had just agreed to kick in to pay it, it would have been done months ago! 

[Thunderbyrd316]

   I just went past the west end of the bridge on hwy. 43 a few hours ago. It looks to me like there is still quite a bit of work to be done before they will be ready to open the bridge. I am having trouble believing it will be ready in just 4 more weeks, even if allowing for work to continue past that time on the interchange at the west end of the bridge.

If y'all had just agreed to kick in to pay it, it would have been done months ago! 

   Perhaps if they had constructed a bridge that actually INCREASED the number of actual travel lanes from 2 to at least 4 the Clackistani people might have considered it. As it is the new bridge does nothing to improve automobile traffic flow which is the ONLY legitimate method of travel by Americans!  

[doorknob60]

   I just went past the west end of the bridge on hwy. 43 a few hours ago. It looks to me like there is still quite a bit of work to be done before they will be ready to open the bridge. I am having trouble believing it will be ready in just 4 more weeks, even if allowing for work to continue past that time on the interchange at the west end of the bridge.

If y'all had just agreed to kick in to pay it, it would have been done months ago! 

   Perhaps if they had constructed a bridge that actually INCREASED the number of actual travel lanes from 2 to at least 4 the Clackistani people might have considered it. As it is the new bridge does nothing to improve automobile traffic flow which is the ONLY legitimate method of travel by Americans!  

The bridge itself isn't the main bottleneck with the Sellwood. It's the inadequate 2 lane road it dumps you onto on the east side of the Willamette, Tacoma St. Having a 4 lane bridge and then dropping down to 2 as soon as the bridge is done won't accomplish a whole lot. Until there is some sort of bypass or at least a road upgrade to better access the bridge from 99E (no idea if anything like this is planned, I haven't heard of it if so), I don't think 4 lanes would be much benefit on the bridge itself.

[Bickendan]

SE Tacoma St used to be a 4 lane road with parking in the right lane for off-peak hours. As it's not that wide for a 4 laner, the city put it on a road diet, and in this instance, it's a street where a downgrade makes sense.

[KLR]

I was driving across the Sellwood last month and was puzzled/amused to see a 40' low clearance warning sign.  They put it up for the boom crane operators I guess, but aren't they hip to such navigation hazards already?  Otherwise I took it for a bit of ODOT humor.

[Bickendan]

Was that clearance warning on Macadam or the bridge itself? Macadam's ODOT, the bridge is Multnomah County.

[KLR]

On the bridge itself - the sign is visible on Google Street View, as it happens:  SW Sellwood Bridge - Google Maps  "Tower Crane Overhead Clearance."  Out here in Newberg we have warning signs about overhead power lines in the area of the bypass construction which are of equal non-importance to motorists so perhaps road departments just like to warn us about every last little thing.

[Sub-Urbanite]

Drove over the bridge last night and was quite impressed. It's beautiful, it feels so much more breathable, if you will, as a driver than the old bridge did. Not worried about kissing side-view mirrors. The decision to not widen it seems even wiser now — there just isn't any room on Tacoma Street for more traffic.

Random question: Let's say Multnomah County could replace a bridge a decade. Which would you replace next?

• Hawthorne - Built in 1910, 30,000 daily users
• Morrison - Built in 1958, 52,000 daily users
• Burnside - Built in 1926
• Broadway - Built in 1913

Note that the Abernethy, Marquam, Fremont & St. Johns are owned by ODOT and the Steel is owned by UP.

[Bruce]

Wonder how well replacing the Broadway or Steel bridges would go, given that they carry rail transit. The streetcar would have course use Tilikum to get to the Eastside, but MAX doesn't quite have that luxury.

[Bickendan]

Broadway's being rehabbed right now.
Morrison's deck replacement has been a controversy and needs another replacement, forcing a 10 ton limit and rerouting of TriMet line 15 and C-Tran's commuter lines, and the bridge has already been replaced twice already.
Hawthorne was retrofitted 10-15 years ago?

[Sub-Urbanite]

Broadway's being rehabbed right now.
Morrison's deck replacement has been a controversy and needs another replacement, forcing a 10 ton limit and rerouting of TriMet line 15 and C-Tran's commuter lines, and the bridge has already been replaced twice already.
Hawthorne was retrofitted 10-15 years ago?

Yeah, but for earthquake purposes, aren't most of them doomed? The Broadway's piers and foundation are unstable, and won't the counterweights on the Hawthorne swing like a pendulum until they break?

[Bickendan]

Probably.

[Thunderbyrd316]

   This morning as I was passing through on Oregon 43 southbound I saw a crew removing the last of the construction signage from around the new Sellwood Bridge. Also, as of this morning the 25 m.p.h. construction speed limit is no longer posted, either on Oregon 43 or on the bridge itself. There is also a new MUTCD compliant "SPEED LIMIT 35" sign posted northbound just north of the northbound on-ramp to Oregon 43, though there is as yet, no corresponding signage posted south bound from Taylors Ferry Road. The non-MUTCD compliant "SPEED 45" sign just south of the bridge is still in place and I did not notice if a new compliant OR non compliant sign was yet posted northbound south of the bridge at the beginning of the 35 zone in that direction. On the bride itself a brand new non-MUTCD compliant "SPEED 30" sign (featuring Oregon's traditional large "C" font numerals as opposed to the smaller "C" font or "D" font numerals ODOT has been using in recent years) can be clearly seen for east bound traffic.

   There was still a bit of work being performed directly under the bridge on Oregon 43 with one lane closed and a flagger but with the removal of signage (save for a lone "END ROAD WORK" sign southbound just past the SPEED 45 sign) barrels, cones and the removal of the temporary 25 m.p.h. construction speed zone, I believe we can officially call this project complete as of this morning.