FROM THE EDITOR

Getting a handle on the Sellwood Bridge process

By Eric Norberg

The Bee, Aug 1, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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Much attention has been put on the fact that the federal funding requires keeping “all options open” till the advisory process is done — and that could include a multi-lane bridge. Tacoma Street, which is the feeder street for the bridge, is now a two-lane street and will remain so under the accepted city plan, and indeed reducing the lanes from four to two on Tacoma improved traffic flow, and made the two halves of the Sellwood neighborhood accessible to each other to residents again. Tacoma Street is NOT part of the bridge project, so that matter remains a settled one, as far as the federal funding is concerned.

So, more than two lanes on a new bridge would provoke the same traffic congestion that a four-lane Tacoma Street used to have, when fed by two lanes at both ends. The possibility of more lanes seems fed primarily by the possibility of a trolley on the bridge at some time, and the desire to avoid having one stalled car block traffic completely.

However, recently, a possibly acceptable reason for a four-lane bridge has emerged: Two lanes for conventional traffic, and two lanes dedicated to bus (and later possibly trolley) use only. That would expedite bus traffic in commuter times, advancing the desire to encourage bus use; it would leave open the possibility of a trolley on the bridge someday; and it would provide side lanes to accommodate traffic in the event of a stall or traffic accident. It’s only a discussed possibility at this point, but it may have some appeal.

There are those who favor just repairing the current bridge; the ramps at both end of the bridge would need complete replacement, but the center part of the span is apparently repairable, though it is not in very good shape at this time. But it would have to be closed for repair, and since the county plans to keep the route open, a second, temporary bridge would have to be built near it to carry traffic while the rehabilitation of the existing bridge is underway. And it cannot be an inexpensive floating bridge; the Willamette is a navigable river, and it must be high enough to permit river traffic to continue, so the rehab option turns out to be quite expensive — more so than building a new bridge, in many scenarios.

You can follow the process in person at the various committee meetings and open houses, or on the Internet at www.sellwoodbridge.org. All upcoming meetings are posted there, plus most of the documents presented to the advisory committee.

One thing that has struck us as not being discussed at all — at least when we’ve been present — concerning the various proposed alignments is that ancient, creeping landslide at the west end of the bridge. If the bridge is to be repaired or rebuilt in a place where the west end is still on the landslide, there will necessarily be the additional expense of building a “cofferdam” to provide stability, and to let the slide inch past without moving the bridge supports, as it does now.

If the bridge is built so the west end is north of the landslide area, the expense of the cofferdam is not needed.

Although THE BEE expects to support whatever decision is eventually arrived at — as long as there is still to be a Sellwood Bridge; we would not support doing away with it entirely — if your editor were pressed today to pick one alignment as the most appealing, it would be the so-called “teal alignment” (the topmost alignment on the accompanying illustration), which was first publicly suggested by John Fyre of Westmoreland (a former SMILE President), as a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee.

It has garnered very strong citizen support since it was belatedly added to the alignment options. It would route the bridge northwest over the parking lot to Sellwood Riverfront Park, would minimize property and structure losses, and it appears to have its west end north of the landslide area, thus adding stability and reducing the cost, compared to most of the other alignments.

But that’s just how it appears to us. Recent letters to the editor in THE BEE suggest that there are a wide range of opinions, including having no bridge there, or having ferries carry traffic during a rehab, or construction of a tunnel (hugely expensive, more so than any other option, and without any pedestrian or bicycle access). One wag even suggested a catapult in an anonymous drawing which turned up at an open house!

There’s still time to be engaged in the process. We’ll continue to report on it, as hard as it is to come to grips with sometimes, and we’ll continue to drive on the Sellwood Bridge until there is a new one to drive on.

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