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Multnomah County officials are holding off on major repairs to the Morrison Bridge until an investigation takes place to determine replacement materials for failing deck panels.

Construction to replace the bridge deck was initially scheduled to take place next year, but will have to wait until a decision has been made whether to use steel, aluminum or fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP), county spokesman Mike Pullen said.

The challenge is that each option has drawbacks, he said. Open steel grating doesn’t provide good traction when wet and isn’t ideal for cars traveling at high speeds. Aluminum panels are less slippery, but also considered more experimental.

As for fiber-reinforced polymer, the county is suing the only company that uses the material for bridge deck panels. This type of panel was installed on the Morrison Bridge nearly three years ago and later found defective because of cracking and failure of the fastening system.

The deck was installed between 2011 and 2012 by Ridgefield, Wash.-based Conway Construction, which later filed suit against the panels’ manufacturer 鈥� Durham, N.C.-based ZellComp Inc. 鈥� and supplier 鈥� Bristol, Va.-based Strongwell Corp. Earlier this year, the county joined the suit and filed another against New York-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.

In the meantime, the county will continue to close the bridge once a month to make repairs, but this can only go on for so long, he said.

鈥淲e do see signs of premature wear that tells us we’re going to have to replace the deck in the near future,鈥� he said.