Wednesday,March3,2021
Columbia Gorge News
www.columbiagorgenews.com
11
I-84 bridge demolition nears conclusion
70-year-old span
gets new surface
by Memorial Day
Kirby Neumann-Rea
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
HOOD RIVER — The
noisy demolition work on
Interstate 84 in Hood River is
scheduled to be complete by
March 3.
With its phalanx of cranes,
forklifts, augers and massive
“munchers,” it’s been an
unusual way for the state to
upgrade a bridge.
“We don’t do many deck
removals or deck replace-
ments. Normally it’s repairs
and a new overlay,” said
engineer Trevor Lutter of
Oregon Department of
Transportation.
“There’s quite a few steel
structures but not old ones
like this that are on an inter-
state,” added ODOT engineer
Corey Kunze.
In this case, the crews are
taking the bridge down to its
steel skeleton, built in 1952,
and “all of our structure guys
think it looks great,” Lutter
said. Kunze and Lutter said
the palpable bounce felt
on the bridge as work goes
on is typical for freeway
bridges and evidence of their
structural resilience to the
weight and motion of regular
70-mph traffic.
Part of the mostly-asphalt
freeway, the concrete portion
is technically a bridge that
dates to when the freeway
was first constructed.
Now that the bridge has
been whittled down to steel,
the next phase is to place
a protective coating on the
steel, covering the lead paint
that has been in place for 70
years, according to Kunze.
Crews will then install what
is known as “falsework,” the
wooden forms for the new
concrete, a lighter-weight
composite material that will
go down to last the next few
decades.
“What they’ll essentially do
is build the shape of the new
bridge,” said Kunze.
While snow and days of
high winds interrupted the
flow of work, the project
remains on schedule.
“We had a few days with
the snow where we were shut
down,” Lutter said. “They
did a lot of overtime and are
caught up.”
Carter and Company
supervisor Jim Califf said,
“We’ve been putting in some
long hours, the guys have
been working real hard, but
Carter and Company “muncher” machine, resembling a giant metal horse head, pulverizes 12-foot pieces of bridge deck that crews cut up with saws and torches.
Kirby Neumann-Rea photo
we needed to get caught up.”
As slanting rain fell Friday, he
joked that, by comparison,
“this is great construction
weather.”
The is the second bridge
deck project between exits
63 and 64 on Interstate 84 in
recent months; the west-
bound lanes at that location,
structurally a separate bridge
from the eastbound, was
repaired in fall 2020. The
western bridge was built in
1962 and added onto about
20 years ago, meaning it
required repairs and a new
overlay rather than removal.
The first phase of the east-
bound replacement was to
install a wide catwalk under
the bridge to catch material
before it falls into the Hood
River. Crews worked in 10-
foot stages removing first
the concrete guardrail and
then every piece of concrete
coming into contact with
steel girders and bolts. All
that debris was collected in a
hanging tarp and secondary
tarps below, brought back
up the bridge deck, and
Above left, a load of debris is piled up after the “muncher” machine pulverized the concrete and separated the rebar and other metal.
Above right, Steel beams are exposed and an auger perforates another concrete section of Interstate 84 near exit 63 in this view looking
east in Hood River.
Kirby Neumann-Rea photos
systematically pulverized, the
metal rebar and pipes placed
in separate piles. That incre-
mental process was repeated
as the deck pieces themselves
were cut up with concrete
saws, the rebar severed with
saws and acetylne torches.
Gnarled rebar and piles
of concrete rubble from
the bridge demolition will
no longer be a familiar site
between exits 63 and 64. The
metal is taken to Portland for
recycling and the concrete,
which is turned nearly to
dust on site, is being trucked
to Rapid Ready Concrete
in Bingen, to become new
material that could very well
end up back on the Hood
River bridge.
Motorists should be aware
that the serpentining traffic
pattern over the Interstate
84 will remain in place until
Bill to protect ranchers
The Washington State
House of Representatives
unanimously approved
House Bill 1199, sponsored
by District 14 Representative
Chris Corry (R-Yakima),
which seeks to compensate
ranchers and farmers for
financial losses when their
state-owned land leases are
terminated early.
HB 1199 would require
the Washington state
Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) to reim-
burse lessees when DNR
exercises a non-default or
early termination provision
in a state-owned land lease.
“We’ve worked hard over
the past couple of years
to bring this bill together,”
said Corry. “This legislation
is a great example of what
can happen when citizens,
agencies in this case, the
Department of Natural
Resources and state govern-
ment works together to find a
solution.”
The Department of Natural
Resources has an interest in
leasing to land-tenants who
produce high revenues. The
revenue generated from state
trust lands provides funding
for K-12 school construction
and other projects through-
out the state. According to
state law, DNR can use a
non-default termination
to replace a lessee with a
higher-revenue tenant. But
when the early termination of
a land lease occurs, farmers
and rancherswho frequently
invest thousands of dollars
in the propertyface tremen-
dous financial uncertainty.
Corry’s bill would establish
a compensation formula
for agricultural and grazing
leases, along with other ob-
ligations that would support
both land lessees and state
interests.
“In some cases, genera-
tions of farming or ranching
families have worked these
lands. This bill balances both
their financial investments
in the land with the interests
of the state and its citizens
who own the property being
used,” said Corry.
The bill now heads to
the Senate for further
consideration.
The 2021 legislative session
is scheduled to end April 25.
the project is done, prior to
Memorial Day in late May.
Replacement was need-
ed because as recently as a
few years ago, pieces of the
freeway bridge were literally
falling out, and the lanes be-
came a patchwork of repairs
ODOT contractors had done
in asphalt or concrete and a
composite repair material.
The largest hole was one
three feet wide that appeared
overnight about 10 years ago.
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TRASH TALK
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