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Effective transportation infrastructure is essential for business, and that is why a pair of Interstate 84 bridge spans in Troutdale are being replaced.

The Oregon Department of Transportation is carrying out the where I-84 meets Graham Road, near the Sandy River. There, general contractor Carter & Company Inc. of Salem is in charge of completely replacing the westbound and eastbound bridge spans in a phased project that began in January. Final completion is scheduled for winter 2020, following improvements to Graham Road itself.

Seven precast post-tensioned concrete girders for the westbound span were to be placed on Monday, ODOT project manager Scott Mercer said. It’s an important point for the second phase of the project, he added. In the first phase, crews built a temporary span between the two permanent spans originally built by ODOT in the late 1950s. In the third phase, scheduled for 2020, the eastbound span will be replaced.

鈥淭hey’ll take the B (outside) lane, but you can’t do that until 10 o’clock at night,鈥� Mercer said. 鈥淭hey’ll have the crane there and the beams will just sit right there and they’ll just pick from both sides 鈥� boom, boom, boom.鈥�

Both bridge spans’ east ends will be movable, while the west ends will be fixed. The abutments on the east side will have the precast beams sitting 3 feet apart atop bearing pads that allow the beams to flex with temperature changes and different weights of passing vehicles.

鈥淭hey’ll set those seven beams, and 鈥� they’ll have post-tensioning in the box girders,鈥� Mercer said. 鈥淪o, we’re putting steel in and we’ll start jacking the steel up to tension. And once that’s done, we’ll start working on the deck.鈥�

Plans for the eastbound span are virtually identical, Mercer noted.

In addition, the height of the Graham Road underpass beneath the bridge will increase from 13.5 feet to 17 feet. This will allow safe passage of large trucks and oversize vehicles that are increasingly servicing the Port of Portland’s adjacent Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park, which hosts Amazon, FedEx and other distributors.

Also, as part of the project, Graham Road will be widened underneath the bridge and a third lane will be added.

鈥淚t’s all part of economic development,鈥� ODOT Public Information Officer Don Hamilton said. 鈥淭his helps the jobs phase, and it’s all related to that.鈥�