91视频

Ted Aadland’s favorite bridge is whichever one he just helped build. In this case, it’s the new Sellwood Bridge, where work is due to wrap completely in mere weeks.

Multnomah County originally brought on Aadland to consult on the construction manager-general contractor delivery method. He was later asked by half of the joint venture that won the bid, Sundt Construction, to be its representative in Oregon during the project. That gig came about through a personal connection with the Arizona firm’s president and chairman, J. Doug Pruitt, who Aadland succeeded as national president of Associated General Contractors in 2010.

The 91视频 asked Aadland, one of the state’s leading bridge-building professionals, about seismic readiness, the construction labor shortage and his time in Vietnam.聽Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.

91视频: Why is the Sellwood your favorite bridge?

Ted Aadland: Well, it’s a large project and I’ve been on it almost six years now, from the inception of it. Just watching it come together and getting built. I know every problem and headache, and how we solved it all and moved ahead. I mean, I’m ready to get away from it, but at the same time, we’ve taken on every challenge. We’ve done everything that had to be done, and we got it completed. So that’s my favorite bridge. My next favorite bridge will be the next one I’m on. It’s always that way.

91视频: Will it be your last bridge?

Aadland: Oh, who knows? I keep saying that, but then somebody says, 鈥淚 need you over here.鈥� And I haven’t been very good at saying no. I do plan to take some time and do a little traveling and live up to the promises I made my wife over the years. So that is the future.

91视频: You’re a proponent of using CM-GC, when appropriate. Why is it a good method for a bridge project?

Aadland: CM-GC is a great way to do it when you have the right team and everybody’s thinking project-first. You’ve got the expertise of the owner, the architect and the contractor 鈥� all working together for the betterment of the job, which helps the taxpayer get the biggest bang for their buck.

91视频: The Oregon Department of Transportation says half of Oregon’s bridges rated 鈥渃ritical鈥� will collapse in a magnitude 8 earthquake. What needs to be done?

Aadland: ODOT has a system where, if there’s a catastrophe, they know which contractors to call to get ’em out immediately and start fixing things. And ODOT looks at every bridge every two years. They’ve got ’em on a scale and they know the bridges that they really need to bring up to standards for an earthquake.

But money’s a problem. They can’t do seismic retrofits on all the ones they’d like. And there’s bridges they’d rather replace than fix 鈥� that sometimes figures in. Why spend the money on it when we want to replace it here in the next couple years? But I think, all in all, ODOT’s done a really good job of looking at the structures, knowing the shape they’re in and what their needs are.

91视频: And that’s just the bridges that the state maintains. Oregon’s cities and counties maintain thousands more. What should localities be doing to upgrade their bridges?

Aadland: They have to follow the same procedures of having their bridges checked every two years. I think the bigger difference with the counties and cities is sometimes, politics sometimes play a bigger part in, you know, where the priorities are than they do with ODOT. It’s a big responsibility and I think most of the cities and counties really try to do a good job with it.

91视频: Planners have identified the Burnside Bridge as a 鈥渓ifeline,鈥� but significant repairs must be made. Do you think it should be replaced? And what about the rest of Portland’s iconic-but-costly-to-maintain pre-1970s bridges – should they be replaced?

Aadland: All bridges have life spans. We always said that life span was 50 years, and they’re stretching it out to 100 years now 鈥� and that’s really stretching it. There’s fatigue, there’s wear, there’s a lot that goes into bridges. I think they’re all going to have to be replaced in time. The replacement of the Burnside is a top priority for Multnomah County, and I know that it’s the next big, major project that they’re going to be looking at.

It’s a real link in the city and it’s going to be hard to shut it down and divert traffic. We’re getting more and more people in the area. And as it grows, it gets harder and harder to detour traffic around all the new projects.

91视频: There’s also the issue of bridge maintenance. What are Oregon’s biggest bridge maintenance needs?

Aadland: Our biggest needs are on the smaller, older bridges. We have to look at those first. People forget how old some of our bridges are. A lot of them were built in the ’50s and ’60s. They’ve passed the 50-year mark and are heading for the 100-year.

91视频: Will the bridges of the future require less maintenance?

Aadland: Well, for instance, the Sellwood Bridge is built out of weathering steel. It’s a steel that actually rusts and oxidizes, and protects itself. Even if it’s scratched, it re-rusts and protects itself. They’re using better and better materials to ensure longer-lasting structures, structures that don’t require a lot of maintenance but will last (many) years.

91视频: You’ve done a lot of work around the West. How is Oregon’s approach different from other states in terms of seismic readiness?

Aadland: That’s pretty hard to judge. I think California, where I’ve done quite a bit of work, pays a lot more attention to seismic than either Oregon or Washington. I’m not saying Oregon and Washington aren’t paying attention 鈥� I don’t think we’re as strong on it as California because we haven’t had the earthquakes.

91视频: What did you take from your experience as a combat engineer in the Vietnam War to your career in heavy civil?

Aadland: That was a situation where we were moving goods and we just had to keep things going. You just had to push and make it happen. There were so many elements to stop you 鈥� from people shooting at you, to mortars and mines that you had to be afraid of and look out for. Every day was a hard push, and I think it really taught me that if you’re going to accomplish something, you have to work hard at it. You make it happen. It doesn’t just happen on its own. Vietnam taught me that more than anything.

91视频: The labor shortage is a major issue for the AGC. Did you sense this was in the future during your tenure?

Aadland: It’s been something on the radar screen for quite a while. In the early 2000s at AGC, we were really pushing to get more apprentices, and of course what killed us was the big downturn in 2007-2008. And a lot of the apprentices, and even people who’d been in the industry for years, there wasn’t any work and we lost them. We totally lost a generation of people, and we’re feeling it now.

Every place you go, they’re looking for people. Normally we have a glut of people at this time of year, and now there’s such a shortage. It is a real problem. Some major projects are about to get started in the area and they’re just going to suck up the available people. We’re very concerned about where we’re going to get talent.

91视频: What should be done?

Aadland: We just really need to find a way to get more training programs out there. I’m a little bit bothered when all of us in the industry are searching for good people, and at the same time we’re hearing that we’ve got a homeless issue and lots of people can’t find work. Somehow we need to figure out how to pull some of those people out of that realm of homelessness, get ’em trained, get ’em to a place where they can be productive and recapture their life and work and go forward.

91视频: Bridge builders are the artists of the engineering world. Who are the ones you admire?

Aadland: (Ralph) Modjeski really did a great job. And (Conde B.) McCullough, of course. He built all the bridges up and down the coast of Oregon, and his structures are all pieces of art. I got to redo the Newport Bridge, and we were able to go in there and save that bridge from coming down, and that was exciting.

You know, when you get in there and look at ’em and their design and everything that goes into them, they’re pretty fantastic. They’re pretty exciting.

91视频: Even the modern ones? I doubt anyone would ever get a tattoo of the Marquam Bridge. They seem kind of boring 鈥� what do you think?

Aadland: I think they’re utilitarian, you know. The Marquam Bridge, bridges on the interstate 鈥� we were more concerned with building the interstate and pushing on through. We’re building structures that have to fit where they go. Nobody was thinking about building a monument.

So yeah, maybe they are a little on the boring side, but each of ’em, from my view, is very challenging. You’ve got all the different aspects, like the foundations out in the middle of the river, the high water, the coffer dams. You’ve got to put the whole thing together, and have the highest possible quality, and do it all without hurting anybody. You’ve got to know your scheduling and your subs 鈥� it’s like being an orchestra leader. If you’re not a good orchestra leader, even the best musicians won’t play good music for you.