Center St Bridge Seismic Pushed out to 2027

You may recall that the October MWACT agenda listed a check-in on the Center Street Bridge seismic project.

Project sheet from 2019

The agenda item had said the "Construction year is estimated to be in 2025."

Oct. 2022: "Construction year...in 2025"

The presentation disclosed the project has been pushed out two years now to 2027, and as I read it the tone of the update suggests more delay is possible. It doesn't read as expressing firmness or urgency.

Here from the October draft minutes, included in the packet for last week's MWACT meeting, is the whole discussion:

Andrew Walker, ODOT, provided an overview of the history, scope, purpose, schedule, and status of the Center Street Bridge Seismic Retrofit project. As the bridge is a key route to West Salem, funding was allocated to retrofit the bridge to withstand large scale seismic activity through House Bill (HB) 2017. Design work on this project has begun.

The bridge was studied in 2019 to determine what would need to be done to retrofit the bridge. Cost estimates for the project were made. A consultant for the project has been selected.

Mr. Walker provided an onscreen illustration of the project segments. Each of the bridge sections has different structural elements which need to be addressed. Additional complications to the project include the parks on both sides of the river and that the area is designated as a Coast Guard Navigable Channel.

Ian Davidson asked if the addition of a transit only lane has been considered. Mr. Walker responded that he doesn’t think it has been considered. In response to a question from Mr. Davidson, Mr. Walker replied that there will be no change to the bikelane on the bridge. Julie Warncke, Salem Public Works, commented that the city studied the concept, but it was not an approved option. Mr. Walker added that no changes are proposed to be made to the roadway configuration.

Mr. Walker provided an overview of the project schedule. The estimated completion of construction date is sometime in 2027. Councilor Trevor Phillips asked how confidant Mr. Walker is of the timeline. Mr. Walker responded that at this stage of project development, he is fairly confidant of it; but the Value Engineering phase could change the timeline. Councilor Phillips asked what the impact of construction would be like on bridge users and about the resiliency of the bridge when the work is completed. Mr. Walker responded that while there will be some impact to traffic, most of the impact will occur around the foundations of the bridge. He explained that the intent is for the bridge to be able to be used immediately (within 24 hours) of a significant seismic event.

Referencing funding issues and recent project cost escalations, Mike Jaffe suggested it might be prudent for MWACT members to encourage lawmakers to allocate additional funding to this project should it be needed.

One thing that may need more attention is the plan for using the bridge after catastrophe.

Cherriots on the bridges

As the question from Cherriots Board President Davidson indicated, there hasn't been much attention given to new function, like a transit only lane (which with our climate goals we should be thinking about more), but there also doesn't seem to be any attention on how the bridge might function for two-way travel in the event the Marion and Union Street Bridges are toast.

Abandoned two-way concept, DEIS 2012

A decade and more ago there was some analysis of two-way function, and that should be looked at more seriously as part of the contingency plans for disaster. Maybe no auto travel will be possible at all, making moot this kind of plan, but in a lesser quake that merely damages but does not destroy the other bridges, and leaves at least some of our roadways usable, two-way travel on the Center Street Bridge would be possible. Maybe a plan for cones, signs, and barricades is all that is necessary, but these seem like short-term arrangements, and a medium or even longer term arrangement might be necessary.

Oct. 2016 "Findings Report" for the SRC

Though it risks unwelcome project creep, now that we have put the SRC behind us, and we know we need to reduce VMT in order to reach our climate goals, the context for the Center Street Seismic project has changed a little, and we may need more attention on resituating that in the conversations, analyses, and debates of the 2020s.

Previous notes on the seismic project here.