Sellwood Bridge is no longer falling down, falling down...

Illustration by Oceana Wills

By Laura Blum///Staff Writer

There’s good news and bad news about the Sellwood Bridge. The good news is that the city of Portland already has begun construction that will replace the bridge with a new, far superior one. The bad news is that the new bridge will take three to four years to complete, and until then, a Sellwood Shuttle may be too much to hope for.

Currently, the Sellwood Bridge is one of the weakest bridges in the nation. It’s also inconvenient for commuters, having only one sidewalk and no bike lanes.

In 2004, following the discovery of cracks in the bridge’s foundation—which have since been repaired—the weight limit of vehicles allowed on the bridge was lowered from 32 to 10 tons. This change effectively ended bus service over the bridge as loaded buses exceed the 10-ton limit. Thus, in the interest of public safety, bus lines were rerouted to no longer cross the river at that point.

Tyler Rizzo (’14), a Sellwood resident, is well aware of the dangers of the bridge. “It’s a sketchy structure. I’ve personally tried biking and walking across it, and I feel pretty unsafe, just because there’s only one sidewalk that’s rather small. It’s pretty inconvenient for anyone not in a car. And people who do take cars across it are always a little nervous about it.”

The new structure that is replacing the truss-style bridge will be a steel deck arch, a type of bridge that is very stable and can withstand the force of a high-magnitude earthquake. The narrowest section will be 64 feet across and contain two lanes for cars and buses, two bike lanes, and two 12-foot sidewalks, one on either side of the new bridge. The structure will also feature improved interchanges and on-ramps.

Eddie Barksdale (’13), who has biked across the bridge many times, offered his advice to fellow cyclists who use the bridge. “It can be intimidating to bike across the bridge since most drivers don’t know about Oregon bike laws and ignore the tiny little sign that says ‘bikes on roadway.’ You have to take the lane or else people will just squeeze past you.”

In his view, however, simply building a new bridge will not entirely fix this problem. “I’m really glad Multnomah County is rebuilding the bridge with actual bike and pedestrian lanes,” he remarked, “but it still doesn’t address the real issues for bikers, which is having educated drivers.”

Unfortunately for Lewis & Clark students, we’ll have to wait until about 2015 to see the results of this project. A temporary structure, called a “shoofly” bridge, will be constructed in the meantime. The shoofly bridge will be more structurally sound than the existing bridge, but it will use the main span of the current Sellwood bridge as the main span of the detour bridge, meaning it will most likely be unable to accommodate the weight of buses. That means that any hope for a Sellwood Shuttle existing in the near future is slim.

Despite these problems, commuters shouldn’t worry about falling into the Willamette River to their doom. Although the existing bridge poses concerns, it is not likely to suddenly collapse. Multnomah County is well aware of its structural defects and conducts a safety check of the bridge every three months.