91视频

With a price tag for a new Burnside Bridge exceeding $800 million, and only $300 million available, a community task force met Tuesday night seeking cost-reducing measures.

A long span was chosen as the preferred option earlier in the planning process. This would be a movable bridge in the same location and with the same length but with a support structure above the roadway and fewer columns below.

Currently, Multnomah County has access to about $300 million for the project via vehicle registration fees. The goal is to reduce the financial gap and make it easier to find additional funding sources.

Potential cost-reduction measures include:

• reducing the bridge’s overall width by eliminating a vehicle lane and providing bicyclist and pedestrian space of at least 14 feet wide on the side with a crash-barrier (savings: approximately $140 million-$165 million);
• selecting a 鈥榞irder’ structure type for the west approach that would place two rows of support columns (fewer than at present) in Waterfront Park (savings: $5 million-$10 million); and
• adding a row of support columns on the east approach inside the Burnside Skatepark or adjacent to it for the tied arch (savings: $15 million-$20 million).

Altogether, these measures could reduce the project cost by 20 percent, county communications coordinator Mike Pullen said.

Of the three, adding a 鈥榞irder’ structure on the west approach is the least controversial. Both the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission and Design Commission endorse this structure type because it doesn’t conflict with the historic district’s lower building heights or impede the view of the famous 鈥淧ortland, Oregon鈥� (White Stag) sign.

This choice would mean the new Burnside Bridge would be asymmetrical, Pullen said.

Though reduction of the bridge’s overall width to roughly 85 feet would be the 鈥済randdaddy鈥� of cost-saving measures, Pullen said, the loss of a traffic lane concerned most task force members. That measure would greatly reduce the cost of materials because the bridge would be smaller and the stabilizers holding it up wouldn’t need to be so large.

鈥淚f you make it narrower it is a lot less material,鈥� Pullen said.

To see if this option would even be feasible, the project team needs to estimate future traffic demand for the bridge and see if a reversible lane could be added.

Effects of potentially adding a row of support columns on the east approach also generated concerns. If a tied arch is needed, columns would need to be placed either in the Burnside Skatepark (not ideal, Pullen said) or in the street, which would become narrower.

The project team will spend the next several months evaluating each proposed cost-reduction measure and give recommendations to the task force in the fall. Bridge construction is not expected to start until 2025, Pullen said.