8 • The Southwest Portland Post
NEWS
August 2012
Multnomah County still faces $10 million Sellwood Bridge funding shortfall
– some even suggested that designers
do away with non-auto facilities on the
north side entirely – but there was also
opposition.
The opposition was stronger at a
meeting the following week of the
public stakeholders committee, made
up of representatives of participating
jurisdictions.
Cannon told the County Commission
that every month of delay increases the
project’s costs by $1 million and said,
“By the time we got this resolved, we
would have eaten up the cost savings.”
Roger Averbeck and Andrew Holst
(Continued on Page 5)
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
Multnomah County and its advisory
groups spent much of last month seek-
ing ways to bridge a $10 million gap in
funding for a new Sellwood Bridge. At
press time they were still $2.3 million
short as both citizens and politicians
found one cost-cutting idea unaccept-
able.
As project manager Ian Cannon ex-
plained to the project’s Citizen Adviso-
ry Committee, and later the Multnomah
County Commission, they have run into
some unanticipated expenses.
Chief among these is the discovery
that the hillside west of Highway 43
(Macadam Avenue), which they are
cutting into to make way for a recon-
figured roadway, is less stable than
previously thought, and there will need
to be a retaining wall to prevent future
landslides.
Other factors are higher than antici-
pated subcontractor bids, higher mate-
rial prices, greater soil contamination
beneath the old highway, and “design
complexities” in the river bottom where
piles are being driven.
All of this has pushed the cost of the
project up to just under $300 million,
$10 million more than there are funds
Detour bridge river work being done using a tugboat last month. (Photo courtesy
of Mike Pullen, Multnomah County)
available, Cannon said. He noted that at
times the project cost had been as high
as $330 million, and was reduced by a
variety of means.
At press time, the project team recom-
mended using reinforced concrete in-
stead of steel for the bridge’s five main
pier columns; Cannon said this would
involve no loss of safety for the bridge.
Project team members also propose
to use one, rather than two, right turn
lanes from northbound Highway 43 to
the bridge, and to eliminate an under-
bridge bike ramp.
Another proposal was to take an
“asymmetrical” approach to the
bridge’s bicycle and pedestrian facili-
ties.
Instead of having space for pedestri-
ans and bicyclists to pass each other on
both sides of the bridge, the designers
would narrow the lane on the north side
to allow for a single bike lane.
This was presented to the project’s
Citizen Advisory Committee in early
July. Some members accepted the idea
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