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Multnomah County is a failing Morrison Bridge lift span deck fewer than three years after it was installed.

The cost of the replacement could run upwards of $7.3 million and be paid for with money originally intended to cover $30 million worth of Burnside Bridge repairs two to four years from now, county spokesman Mike Pullen said.

“We got more money for Burnside, but now we’re talking about shifting that extra money to Morrison,” he said.

That shift would require an intergovernmental agreement, Pullen said, and discussions with the Oregon Department of Transportation are under way.

The decision to replace the span came after an investigation earlier this year determined that the deck’s panels, made of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP), were defective.

The deck was installed in 2011-12 by Ridgefield, Wash.-based Conway Construction, which later filed suit against the deck panels’ manufacturer – Durham, N.C.-based ZellComp Inc. – and supplier – Bristol, Va.-based Strongwell Corp. The county joined the suit and in March filed one against New York City-based Hardesty and Hanover LLP, which designed the fiber-reinforced polymer system. The lawsuits are scheduled to go to trial in February 2015, Pullen said.

Some of the panels are cracking, and a fastening system that attaches the panels to the bridge’s structure are failing, said Pullen, noting that the county has to close the bridge once a month to replace panels that are wearing out.

“Experts tell us the whole thing needs to be replaced,” he said.

The county is basing its cost estimate on a design that would use a solid deck made of aluminum. No other bridge in Portland features aluminum, but it is considered safer and provides more traction, Pullen said.

A cheaper option would be an open steel grating system like the one used on the Hawthorne Bridge and was used on the Morrison Bridge for 53 years until it was replaced by the FRP system in 2011. However, that system has been linked to fatalities when drivers lose traction changing lanes during wet weather, Pullen said.

The county has hired David Evans & Associates to design the new lift. The design should be completed by the end of the year, and construction is scheduled for 2015.