OREGON
A8 — THE OBSERVER
State’s
bridges
continue to
age, decay
More than half of
Oregon’s bridges
built before 1970
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — The latest
report about bridge con-
ditions on state highways
offers bad and good news
for Oregon motorists and
truck drivers.
The bad news in the
2021 report released last
month by the Oregon
Department of Transpor-
tation: the total of state
highway bridges not in
“distressed” condition con-
tinued to drop, from 78.4%
in 2020 to 78.2%, close to
the ODOT target of 78%.
The peak in the past decade
was 79.5% in 2016.
The good news: ODOT
is making progress in
seismic reinforcement of
state bridges, and work is
scheduled to start later this
year on the George Aber-
nethy Bridge, built in 1970,
which carries Interstate
205 across the Willamette
River between West Linn
and Oregon City. The work
will eventually cover nine
bridges in a seven-mile
stretch of I-205 between
Stafford Road and Highway
213 in Oregon City.
Time is working against
state bridges, more than
half of which were built
before 1970, during the
interstate highway era.
A bridge has a normal
lifespan of 50 years,
although its usefulness can
be extended.
Under a 2017 state trans-
portation financing law, $12
million is generated annu-
ally for bridge repairs, up
from $10 million in 2018.
The recent federal infra-
structure financing law,
which President Joe Biden
signed on Nov. 15, will
yield a total of $268 million
more earmarked for bridge
repairs over the next five or
six years. The federal law
also offers opportunities for
states to seek competitive
grants for bridge work.
Still, at the current rate
of three bridges annually,
it will take 900 years to
replace the 2,750 bridges
in the state system. ODOT
estimates its bridge main-
tenance backlog at $5
billion.
Robert Van Brocklin,
of Portland, chairman of
the Oregon Transportation
Commission, said the new
federal funding helps with
bridges and other transpor-
tation needs — but it is not
enough.
“We can make progress
on many of our goals, but
we cannot solve the vast
majority of our funding
problems with the money
from this legislation,” he
said in a statement after a
commission meeting Jan.
20. “We also need to pursue
other revenue sources to
produce sustainable trans-
portation funding to invest
in a reliable, diverse trans-
portation system.”
The bridge problem
is not new. After state
highway officials posted
load limits on some bridges
on Interstate 5 — Oregon’s
main north-south corridor
— the 2003 Legislature
approved a $2.5-billion
financing plan, $1.6 billion
of which went to fixing
state and local bridges on
key freight routes.
In addition to I-5 and
I-84, Oregon’s main east-
west route, ODOT iden-
tified these highways as
Fix-It priority routes a
decade ago: U.S. Highway
97 through Central
Oregon; U.S. Highway 20
between Bend and Burns,
U.S. Highway 26 between
Portland and the north
coast, state Highway 18
from the Portland area to
the coast; parts of U.S.
Highway 101 on the coast,
and state Highway 58 from
south of Eugene to U.S.
Highway 97.
SaTuRday, FEBRuaRy 5, 2022
Mystery bill fuels guessing game on Wyden future
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — A mystery
proposal to change the way
vacancies among Oregon’s
U.S. senators are filled sur-
faced over the weekend and
set off a wave of specula-
tion that Sen. Ron Wyden,
D-Oregon, could opt out of
his 2022 reelection bid or
not serve his full six-year
term if elected.
The questions about
Wyden, 72, and the pro-
posal intensified Tuesday,
Feb. 1, when the proposal
was on the agenda of the
House Rules Committee
in its first meeting after
the beginning of the 2022
session.
It appeared on a short
list of committee bills, a
controversial form of sub-
mitting legislation without
the name of the bill’s
author or who is requesting
the action.
“Why are we doing
this now?” asked
House Minority Leader
Vikki Breese Iverson,
R-Prineville, who is vice-
chair of the Rules panel.
Rep. Barbara Smith
Warner, D-Portland, had
little information about the
gestation of the idea, other
than it came to the com-
mittee as a request from a
reelected.”
Stern said Wyden does
not know where the pro-
posal came from and has
no role in its presentation
or action to change the law.
After the House Rules
Committee meeting on
Feb. 1, the legislation
remained in committee
with no further action
scheduled.
Wyden has $10 million
in his campaign fund, and
declared his intent to run
for reelection in a Federal
Election Commission doc-
ument filed at the begin-
ning of 2021. He formally
filed to run for the Senate
on Jan. 26 when he filed
a statement of candidacy
with the Oregon Secretary
of State.
Wyden challenged
incumbent U.S. Rep. Bob
Duncan, D-Portland, in
the 1980 Democratic pri-
mary for the 3rd Congres-
sional District. Wyden won
and then defeated Repub-
lican Darrell Conger that
November.
When U.S. Sen. Bob
the person who
had the seat.
An election
to fill the unex-
pired portion of
the officeholder’s
Breese-
Wyden
term is held at
Smith
Iverson
Warner
the next general
election.
The proposed
legislation that
“Senator Wyden is
would allow
running hard to win
the governor
to choose an
reelection to a full
interim senator
was circulated
six-year term. He
by bloggers and
will serve a complete Twitter users,
including the
six-year term if
popular Oregon
conservative
reelected.”
website, Oregon
— Hank Stern, spokesman for Sen.
Catalyst.
Ron Wyden
GOP activ-
ists speculated
source she didn’t identify.
it could be a
Oregon is one of five
vehicle for a Democratic
states where the depar-
governor to replace Wyden
ture or death of a sitting
if he either withdrew from
U.S. senator requires a spe- the 2022 race prior to the
cial election to fill the seat, general election or won
which remains vacant in
reelection and didn’t finish
the meantime.
his new term.
The proposal would
Wyden spokesman
allow the governor to align Hank Stern said the Twit-
ter-driven scenarios were
the replacement of a U.S.
“silly and uninformed.”
Senator with the current
“Senator Wyden is run-
system for replacing Ore-
ning hard to win reelection
gon’s executive officers.
to a full six-year term,”
The governor names a
Stern said. “He will serve
replacement drawn from
a complete six-year term if
the same political party as
Packwood, R-Oregon,
resigned in 1995 amid
a sexual harassment
scandal, Wyden won a
special election to fill
the seat, the first vote in
Oregon done entirely by
mail ballot.
Wyden has been elected
to four terms as senator. If
he were to win election in
2022, he would serve until
January 2029, when he
would be 79.
Wyden has raised $10
million since he was last
reelected in 2016 and
reported this month that he
ended 2021 with With $7.2
million in the bank.
The totals dwarf
all other challengers.
The one Democrat and
seven Republicans who
have filed to run Wyden
have raised $168,000,
combined.
The deadline to file to
run for the U.S. Senate and
several other federal and
state offices in Oregon is
March 8.
The primary for both
parties is May 17.
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