Portland City Council next week will consider a proposal to authorize competitive solicitation and execution of price agreements for temporary staff additions to support the Bureau of Environmental Services‘ (BES) Capital Improvement Program (CIP). The investment would be up to $28 million over five years. The temporary staffers would support city personnel with in-house design engineering, design management and project management.

A first reading of the ordinance took place on Wednesday. A second reading and consideration will follow on Dec. 7.

The bureau’s annual capital budget is around $200 million and includes approximately 200 active projects, including required upgrades to the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant, critical pump station repairs and improvements, and other projects. BES has relied on temporary staffers in the past and expects to continue to need them for the CIP, which is increasing due to the number of projects required to meet wastewater and stormwater system needs.

The estimated average annual cost of the agreement would be $5.6 million. Funds would be made available as needed in BES’ Sewer System Operating Fund budget and various CIP project budgets over the term of the price agreements.

Temporary staffers would support capital project design and management, BES analyst Amy Chomowicz said Wednesday. Storm and sanitary structures are aging, she added, and need to be repaired or replaced. Additional staff would help BES maintain output tied to CIP projects.

Similar services have been in place since 2017.

“Currently, we have five contracts that provide us with mainly construction managers and inspectors,” Chomowicz said.

O-call staffing services help the bureau design and construct projects, including storm and sanitary sewers, wastewater pump stations, wastewater treatment facilities, stormwater treatment facilities, and drainage way improvements.

The request for proposals would replace those existing contracts, which expire on June 30, 2023. The contracts that result from this RFP would provide BES with sufficient capacity to bring in supplemental personnel.

“These temporary employees will perform design engineering, project management and controls, and facility planning on a regular and as-needed basis,” Chomowicz said.

The contracts have provided BES opportunities to support workforce development, Chomowicz added. Over the past five years, BES has hired 30 former temporary staff members into permanent positions.

BES is working with an equity team on outreach to encourage Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID)-certified, and disadvantaged, minority-owned, woman-owned, and emerging small business firms to apply.

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For over a decade, Lois Cohen made a significant impact facilitating community outreach in the metro area. Whether a project involved a bridge, a 100-year-old sewage pipe or a bike path, her Portland-based company, Lois D. Cohen Associates (LCA), served as a link between civic agencies and public citizens.

“The work that we do would look very different if it hadn’t been for Lois,” said Cheryl Kuck, community outreach official for the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services. “It would’ve been good work, but it would’ve looked different.”

Cohen died recently, and then LCA closed its doors permanently. The firm originated from her vision of how a third party could help agencies gain community trust in projects. LCA then helped guide community engagement and communication for some of the most important and complex projects in the region.

When a project’s trajectory is communicated effectively to a community, its members are more likely to accept it – even if there are negative implications in the short term, said Kristen Bishop, LCA’s executive director before the firm shut down.

“Lois was a force,” Bishop said. “She had a larger-than-life personality – the kind that really endeared her to a lot of people. She would tell the truth, and people trusted that.

“She was a real advocate for public processes and just an amazing spokesperson for the community in general.”

Cohen’s favorite project, Bishop recalled, was the Sellwood Bridge replacement. LCA enlisted contractors to speak about their careers and the project with several hundred local high school students. Then students were able to design and install the iron benches that now sit on the bridge.

LCA worked with city and state agencies, including the Oregon Department of Transportation. The firm’s relationship with BES extended more than 10 years. Cohen and Kuck worked together closely for more than eight years; they developed a community outreach plan for BES’ Large-Scale Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Program that’s still used as a model.

“There’s something that happened with Lois that doesn’t happen with everybody,” Kuck said. “… We just connected right away. We knew immediately that we were going to do really good work together – we knew immediately.”

While BES was working on the Sellwood-Moreland sewer repair project, the Sellwood Bridge replacement project also was under way. Cohen saw an opportunity to engage people in regard to the sewer system, the bridge and the river, Kuck said.

“She talked to kids about replacing the bridge, and then we talked about replacing a 100-year-old sewage pipe,” Kuck added. “It was a really cool way to use community and place to do community outreach.”

About two years ago, Cohen became ill. Bishop transitioned from project manager to executive director as Cohen stepped back into an advisory role.

“She was very involved in the company all the way up until her death,” Bishop said. “She was amazing, and even through her illness she was emotionally invested in the company doing well.”

Before LCA closed, it had four employees.

“I think that her legacy is that the work lives,” Kuck said. “We’re going to continue to enhance it and improve it.”

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Construction of a new Burnside Bridge may force the closure of the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade for up to 30 months. With the esplanade potentially sidelined for years, some advocates want to reconsider what the Portland public path can be.

Willie Levenson of the Human Access Project is pushing for a remake of the esplanade that would provide “toes in the water” access to the Willamette River. That would be accomplished with terraced steps.

“Terraced seating is a concept that is found regionally, nationally and internationally,” Levenson stated in written comments submitted to Multnomah County. “It is a very elegant way to acknowledge the highs and lows of a river and flood control seasonally, while providing passive recreational opportunities. As the river rises, stairs will be underwater. As the river lowers, more stairs are revealed. This serves as an alternative to riprap armoring and offers better functionality.”

Levenson is presenting the concept as appropriate mitigation for the closure of the esplanade. He’s had several discussions with county and city officials, and submitted his ideas, complete with an architectural rendering and images of precedents from around the world, as a public comment for the Burnside Bridge project’s draft environmental impact statement.

Levenson said it’s too early to discuss his ideas for changes to the esplanade, and declined to discuss the proposal in detail.

“This is something we are doing for fun,” he said. “We know it’s a long shot, but you just never know. We are looking for the right engineer and surveyor to join our volunteer team.”

But in addition to the public comments he submitted to Multnomah County, Levenson has shopped his proposal widely to local government officials and other stakeholders such as the Central Eastside Industrial Council.

“We ran this by (Bureau of Environmental Services staffers); they love the plan,” Levenson said during a CEIC meeting in March. “(Parks & Recreation) loves the plan. We are getting nothing but support for this idea.”

The idea to enhance the 1.5-mile pathway comes as it is being squeezed by major road and bridge projects. The esplanade, a key north-south connection for bicycle commuters and recreational users, sits among key transportation infrastructure, hemmed in by Interstate 5, bridges to the north and south and the river itself.

The county’s drive to build a new Burnside Bridge is expected to lead to construction beginning in 2025. The esplanade, which passes directly underneath the bridge, could close and reopen throughout the construction timeline.

“It could be several different periods,” said Mike Pullen, spokesman for Multnomah County. “We know that’s way too long for people who use the esplanade, so we’re trying to reduce that as much as we can, but we also need to keep workers safe and the public safe.”

The esplanade will need to be closed when the existing span is removed, and again at certain points when the new bridge is installed, Pullen said.

Completed in 2001, the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade is used for 1,500 bike trips and 1,550 pedestrian trips daily, according to the county. Those numbers are expected to rise to 2,650 for bikes and 2,700 for pedestrians by 2045.

In the two decades since, the pathway has become a much-loved part of Portland’s transportation infrastructure. It is used by bicyclist and pedestrian commuters as well as downtown workers looking for exercise. On Monday, the path was filled with walkers, runners, bicyclists, people on scooters and one worker painting over graffiti.

David Stein, a Portland bicycle advocate, said he’s urged county officials to minimize closures and provide more direct detours.

“The esplanade represents a really high-quality, low-stress bikeway and walkway, and it’s being replaced by a significantly more circuitous route that’s higher stress,” said Stein, who serves as chairman of the Transportation Bureau’s Bicycle Advisory Committee but was speaking as an individual.

Stein said he was disappointed with the planned disruptions to the esplanade, particularly compared to the minimal closures expected for the adjacent interstate.

“It really puts into contrast the ease of which it’s possible to deprioritize active modes of transportation,” he said.

The esplanade is owned by the city of Portland and overseen by Portland Parks & Recreation, with the Bureau of Transportation and other city bureaus playing significant roles.

It’s unclear at this point if county and city officials will buy in to Levenson’s concept. He did not advance a cost estimate in his public comments.

“It’s way beyond what we were planning in terms of scale, but it’s an interesting concept,” Pullen said of Levenson’s proposal.

Portland Parks & Recreation isn’t planning to remake the esplanade at this time, spokesman Mark Ross stated in an email.

“Portland Parks & Recreation doesn’t have any pending plans for major work along the esplanade,” he stated. “We are working closely with Multnomah County as they plan for Burnside Bridge work and ODOT … on their respective plans in the area. We appreciate the Human Access Project’s continued advocacy.”

Parks & Recreation has a degree of leverage to demand mitigation for any impacts to the esplanade. A provision in the federal Department of Transportation Act requires construction to avoid impacts to parks, and to mitigate any impacts that cannot be avoided. In the case of the recent Sellwood Bridge project, for example, Multnomah County mitigated impacts by paying for new trees to be planted at the bridge’s west end.

It’s unclear what mitigation will be required for the Burnside Bridge project.

“Before we construct the new bridge, we will work out these details with Portland Parks & Recreation,” Pullen said.

The county is also focused on improving connections between the proposed Burnside Bridge replacement and the esplanade. For now, there’s one staircase – an access point that is regarded as inadequate for disabled persons and nonmotorized vehicles.

“Any connection that is built between a new bridge and the esplanade will need support from the city in terms of approval,” Pullen said. “Who’s going to pay for it isn’t really known. The city is a huge player.”

The esplanade has survived other challenges. Last year, local outcry fended off a roadway widening proposed by the Oregon Department of Transportation that would have resulted in a larger I-5 looming over the esplanade.

The widening plan sparked protests by the city of Portland and citizens, who flooded ODOT with critical comments. In response, ODOT redesigned the project last year to eliminate construction in the Willamette River and the highway encroachment over the esplanade. Instead, ODOT plans to re-stripe I-5 in both directions, shift the highway median to the east and narrow the existing shoulders, according to the agency’s revised environmental assessment for the project.

ODOT considers the problem solved.

“We do not anticipate any impacts to the esplanade,” ODOT spokeswoman April de Leon-Galloway stated in an email.

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Government agencies are one step closer to beginning a $1 billion-plus project to clean up the Willamette River‘s polluted Superfund site through North Portland.

Last week, the Portland City Council authorized the Bureau of Environmental Services to enter into a settlement agreement for remedial design of the Willamette Cove area – a portion of the entire site targeted for cleanup. The bureau will work with the Port of Portland, U.S. Department of Defense and state agencies on the project.

The goal is to design for a “100 percent remedy” of the 10.1-mile stretch of river from Sauvie Island to south of the Fremont Bridge. The design phase is expected to take three to five years, followed by 13 years of construction. The site will then be monitored for 17 years.

River cleanup will be a long process, with a myriad of government agencies involved. The agreement represents a concrete step forward, said Annie Von Burg, an environmental policy manager for the Bureau of Environmental Services.

“This is an exciting phase of the project,” she said. “This is where we get closer to tangible action.”

The agreement – known as an administrative settlement agreement and order on consent – has been negotiated among the government agencies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is overseeing the work. The cleanup also involves the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of State Lands, which owns the riverbed.

The agreement now goes to state and federal agencies for their approvals, which starts a clock for the design work.

“Once that is officially signed, we have a clock ticking that we are legally bound to,” Von Burg said.

A request for proposals was issued June 28. The Bureau of Environmental Services is evaluating the proposals now, and officials expect to award the contract in early to mid-October, Von Burg said.

The contract is for an estimated $8.1 million, although such contracts tend to vary in actual cost.

“My experience is these change pretty significantly, so I’m not sure where we’ll land, but that’s the target,” Von Burg said.

The work is expected to involve dredging and capping the riverbed in certain places.

“We are looking at engineered designs that will guide the cleanup of construction itself,” Von Burg said.

Different places in the river will require different solutions. As one example, the agencies face a complex problem at water mile 11, slightly north of the Broadway Bridge. An underwater cable there is complicating the design work, Von Burg said.

The river is polluted from decades of industrial operations, and the city lists “chemicals of concern” including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

In general, the work is likely to begin upriver, closer to where the affected area begins south of the Fremont Bridge. There may be some exceptions in places where there is a reduced risk of recontamination, Von Burg said.

“There are areas that could possibly go sooner because of the water dynamics,” she said.

The Swan Island lagoon is one such area because it is less impacted by water circulation, Von Burg said.

The remedial construction crews will also have to work around the ongoing operations of Portland Harbor.

The EPA is encouraged that the state and local governments are coming together, spokeswoman Suzanne Skadowski said.

“We’re always happy when the parties are moving forward,” she said.

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In the early returns for Portland’s eco-roofs standard, following the rule is the exception.

Of four Central City projects subject to the city’s eco-roofs rules since the standard took effect in July 2018, only one has met the standard. One was approved by the Portland Design Commission with a much smaller eco-roof atop the podium, and requests for significant modifications of the rule are being made for two others.

In baseball, hitting 1-for-4 is about league average. In city planning, it could be an early warning sign that the rule is either infeasible, or that the city is unwilling or unable to enforce it via the design review process.

“I think it’s a concern for the city,” said Benjamin Nielsen, a senior planner for the Bureau of Development Services. “Developers are having a hard time with some of the requirements of the standard, particularly when solar panels are involved.”

So far, the only project to meet the city’s eco-roofs standard comes from the city of Portland and three partners. The seven-story Fourth and Montgomery project, also known as the Jasmine Block, is under construction in south downtown with an eco-roof that meets the city’s rules. The project will provide space for the city, Portland State University,��Oregon Health & Science University�����Ի���Portland Community College. SRG Partnership designed the building, and Mayer/Reed is the landscape architect. The roof includes solar panels.

The eco-roofs standard took effect last summer as part of the Central City 2035 Plan. Incorporated into Title 33 of city code, the standard requires eco-roofs on new Central City buildings of 20,000 square feet of net area or more within certain zoning.

Eco-roofs are intended to convey several benefits. They reduce urban heat islands, manage stormwater, improve air quality and provide habitat for birds, pollinators and plants.

To meet the standard, at least 60 percent of the roof area must be devoted to eco-roof features, as defined by the Bureau of Environmental Services. The remainder may be occupied by mechanical equipment, solar panels, wind turbines and other items.

Portland’s eco-roofs standard was modeled after Toronto’s, said Mindy Brooks, a city planner with the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.

Portland’s standard has roots in an earlier, voluntary program. Developers could earn bonus height in exchange for eco-roofs. The Central City 2035 Plan rolled back that bonus, among others, in favor of concentrating on affordable housing incentives. Eco-roofs were made mandatory.

The trend of project teams requesting modifications for eco-roofs bears watching, Brooks said.

“I think we need to continue to monitor it and see how it goes,” she said. “We’ve had a couple of very unique (projects) be the first ones out of the gate. So it’ll be important to monitor and see how it proceeds.”

Architects and developers have approached the standard in different ways.

At Block 216, the Design Commission agreed to a modification that places the eco-roof atop only the terraced podium, and not the 35-story tower. The Block 216 eco-roof will cover only 33 percent of the roof area, far below the 60 percent minimum.

GBD Architects is designing the project. Before the Design Commission, architects from GBD argued the wind forces at the tower’s 460-foot height would make an eco-roof unworkable and perhaps unsafe, with the potential for soils and plants to be blown afar. Two design commissioners said an exception to the eco-roof standard may be necessary for towers.

GBD did not respond to interview requests.

City officials are researching how eco-roofs can be built atop towers. The bureaus of Planning and Sustainability, Development Services and Environmental Services are looking into how high winds affect tower eco-roofs, and will issue guidance to future project teams.

It may just be a matter of more complex engineering, Brooks said.

“We did some quick research and did not find wind shear at high altitudes being a problem for eco-roofs,” Brooks said. “At high altitudes, engineering becomes more complex, just as anything does at that altitude.”

Brooks said the city wants to get it right before issuing any guidance.

“We heard what (the architects) said and we want to make sure whatever guidance we provide is appropriate,” she said.

Bora Architects is proposing an entirely different solution at Lincoln High School. The project team proposes to meet the standard at ground level, with plantings. The standard would be met with 63,600 square feet of landscaped areas.

At a May design advice meeting, Bora Architects principal Christopher Linn said ground cover performs better as a heat and carbon sink, and requires less maintenance, than an eco-roof.

“I think we have a proposal that better meets the intent of the guidelines than putting planting on the roof,” Linn told the Design Commission. He did not respond to interview requests from the 91��Ƶ.

Some commissioners said they were amenable to the proposed ground-cover solution.

“I’m OK on the (green roof) modification,” Commissioner Sam Rodriguez said. “I believe it is meeting the intent to some extent.”

Brooks, in an interview, said Bora’s approach “could be appropriate” if it goes beyond the minimum standard, and fulfills the stormwater-management and heat-reduction functions.

The team proposing the five-story PAE Living Building at Southwest First Avenue and Pine Street is also seeking a modification to the eco-roofs standard. ZGF Architects is pursuing Living Building Challenge certification, which requires 75 percent roof coverage by solar panels.

“Eco-roof beneath the panels would not be viable, as the required strategy to maximize on-site production necessitates a flat array of panels, without spacing: thus the eco-roof would not get adequate light or rainfall,” ZGF wrote in its application for a modification.

The Historic Landmarks Commission is set to review the PAE Living Building on Monday. The requested modification on the agenda is simply stated: “To not provide the required eco-roof.”

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Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services has awarded a $200,000 grant to help pay for environmental cleanup of a property that formerly housed a battery manufacturing plant.

The money came out of the city’s Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund, which in 2011 was established via $1 million awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The grant dollars will aid remediation at 2140 N. Williams Ave., where Wagstaff Battery Manufacturing Co. formerly operated.

BRIDGE Housing, a nonprofit, plans to redevelop the property by building a four-story, 61-unit affordable housing complex. The Portland Housing Bureau and Multnomah County will help pay for the project, which under a city policy will include 10 units with priority given to displaced former residents.

“This grant is an investment in our community, helping to create healthy neighborhoods, while providing deeply affordable housing in a historically underserved neighborhood,” Commissioner Nick Fish said. “It’s a win-win-win.”

The Portland Brownfield Program has so far helped address environmental concerns on more than 100 acres, according to the city.

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Major infrastructure upgrades are in the works for the city of Portland’s two major wastewater treatment plants in a project that’s expected to last for six years.

Canada-based Stantec is serving as owner’s representative on behalf of the Bureau of Environmental Services for the work at the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Tryon Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. Both plants are more than 50 years old and in need of reliability, efficiency and capacity improvements, according to Stantec engineers and city officials.

“Both of these plants are aged infrastructure,” said Dick Talley, area manager for Stantec in Portland. “The Bureau (of Environmental Services) here five or six years ago did an assessment in terms of age and reliability, and in terms of their treatment efficiency and capacity. What came out of that was a series of capital improvements the facilities were needing.”

The Columbia Boulevard plant, near Heron Lakes Golf Club and Portland International Raceway, is the larger of the two plants and was completed in 1952. The Tryon Creek plant was built within the city limits of Lake Oswego and completed in 1965.

The two plants treat all of the city of Portland’s wastewater. Columbia Boulevard treats an average of 76 million gallons a day with a capacity of 450 million gallons per day, while Tryon Creek treats 6.5 million gallons per day on average, with capacity to treat 8.3 million gallons per day.

Talley compared the system to a root and branch map. Each building discharges to small pipes, which join larger pipes and eventually the wastewater treatment plants. The Columbia Boulevard facility discharges into the Columbia River, while Tryon Creek goes to the Willamette.

Stantec began working with the BES in August to oversee the projects. At Tryon Creek, a joint venture of Slayden and James W. Fowler Co. is serving as construction manager-general contractor. Black & Veatch and Carollo Engineers are the design engineering firms.

At Columbia Boulevard, Jacobs is on board as the design engineering firm. A CM-GC has yet to be selected.

Budgets have not been finalized, but hard construction costs are expected to reach approximately $80 million at Columbia Boulevard and $50 million at Tryon Creek, Talley said.

“They’re big projects in terms of capital dollars,” he said.

Construction isn’t expected to begin until mid-2020. Both project teams will face the complication of working while the plants run. Neither one can be taken offline.

At Columbia Boulevard, anticipated work includes improving secondary water treatment, rebuilding the odor control system and upgrading electrical systems.

“A lot of the electrical switchgear is 1950s, 1960s vintage,” Talley said.

Tryon Creek needs a more thorough rebuild, including replacement of the headworks and primary treatment equipment, improvement of the secondary treatment and odor control processes and replacement of electrical components.

“The end result is the plant will have little more capacity, a lot more efficiency and be more resilient,” Talley said.

Seismic work will also be done at both plants to ensure they can survive a sizable earthquake intact.

Stantec was selected to oversee the projects because “we felt their team and the firm’s experiences around the world in supporting the delivery of large capital programs using alternative delivery will provide the highest value to BES,” bureau program manager Muriel Gueissaz-Teufel stated in a news release.

Stantec is based in Edmonton, Alberta.

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Two competitive solicitations for construction of $10.2 million in sewer rehabilitation projects are scheduled for approval by the Portland City Council on Wednesday.

The involves the replacement of 15,700 feet, or roughly 3 miles, of sewer line in the Northeast Portland neighborhood.

The project is estimated to cost $6,225,000 and is part of a larger effort to replace failing sewer lines. The lines in the North Montavilla area are on average more than 80 years old, according to a draft ordinance prepared for the City Council.

A parallel project in the South Montavilla area for 6,500 feet of sewer replacement is estimated to cost $4 million.

The Bureau of Environmental Services and engineering consultant Brown and Caldwell have prepared plans for rehabilitating or replacing the deteriorated sewer pipe, including sewer manholes and service laterals, according to the ordinance.

The project is likely to impact traffic on Southeast Washington and Division streets, and near 82nd Avenue.

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Traveling Southwest Capitol Highway near Multnomah Village by foot or bike will be a safer endeavor in the near future. Currently, the narrow, two-lane road lacks shoulders, sidewalks or bike lanes common in other parts of the city.

“It’s the top city transportation priority for Southwest Portland,” said Dylan Rivera, spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT). “People have been talking about Capitol Highway for 20 years. Every time we went to Southwest Portland, people talk about Southwest Capitol Highway.”

The public on Wednesday got its first look at preliminary designs for the improvements. The joint PBOT-Bureau of Environmental Services project will address safety concerns on a stretch of Southwest Capitol Highway from Garden Home Road to Taylors Ferry Road.

The improvements, estimated to cost from $10 million to $20 million, include the addition of separated bike lanes and sidewalks on the east side of the roadway. The west side will gain a lane for both bicyclists and pedestrians.

“The west side was trickier with its topography for creating a combined use lane,” said Steve Szigethy, capital project manager for PBOT. “We will be using different surface types. People will see a few different ways to separate bikes and pedestrians.”

A steep elevation change along the route will present a challenge for the project team. There are steep downhill grades on the northbound side, combined with sharp curves.

“One thing our engineers are doing is giving (the north side) a higher design speed,” Szigethy said. “We want to make sure that when there is a curve, people can navigate that safely. We want to make sure there are good sightlines. That is a design challenge. It is certainly a different environment than found on the east side.”

Another challenge is dealing with stormwater runoff. Unlike many parts of Portland, the area has separate stormwater and sewage systems. Instead of running into the same treatment facilities as sewage, stormwater from Southwest Capitol Highway runs into Fanno Creek and Tryon Creek.

That means designers must find ways to filter pollutants from runoff before it reaches the streams.

“We are working to make sure the stormwater goes where it should, off of streets,” said Diane Dulken, public information officer for the Bureau of Environmental Services. “We want it to go to green street planters that can absorb and filter water and send it into a new pipe built under Capitol Highway.”

The pervasive use of concrete in the area combined with a large number of trees that drop drain-clogging leaves means water often ends up in places it shouldn’t.

“We are building new areas for the water to go so it doesn’t end up flooding,” Dulken said. “That is a perennial problem. We build those green, landscaped areas that serve to slow down the water and filter it to reduce the pollution.”

With the design challenges largely overcome, the project team will now seek public input; final design changes will be made next year. PBOT hopes to put the project out to bid by October or November 2018. Construction is expected to start in 2019 and last about 12 months.

“All told, this will be a major project,” Szigethy said.

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A Boones Ferry Road improvement , planned near Tryon Creek State Natural Area, has been on a Portland Bureau of Environmental Services list of priorities since the 1990s. Now it has been delayed once again.

Plans call for replacing a metal culvert underneath Boones Ferry Road with a bridge, as well as other work. The construction phase of the $6.4 million project was supposed to begin in January 2018. However, because of drawn-out design and procurement processes, and a tight work window, construction now is not scheduled to begin until January 2019.

“We have been working on a pretty tight construction timeline,” said Lisa Moscinski, an environmental specialist with the Bureau of Environmental Services (BES). “The timing issue has to do with the water work window, which is July 15th to September 30th.”

Work is allowed only during that time in order to avoid harming fish populations in the area. The goal of the project is relatively simple: improve water flow through the area to allow better drainage of stormwater.

“It’s a priority because of the undersized and aging culvert,” Moscinski said. “When it rains, the water rises significantly.”

A lack of money has been a major source of delays over the years. The design phase started in 2013, but was first put on hold that year and then again in 2014 because of insufficient funding. Then in 2015 the city secured the final $650,000 needed to allow scheduling to begin; the money came from Metro, via its Nature in Neighborhoods program.

Also, the project’s complexity required more planning time. Decades ago, when Boones Ferry Road was built over a confluence of running water, no bridge was included; instead, fill dirt was used to cover a metal culvert allowing water to flow underneath. However, the fill dirt was contaminated with petroleum products and now must be excavated and disposed of.

Figuring out how to deal with the contamination took time. BES officials decided to build a bridge to accommodate wildlife, drivers and pedestrians, and brought BergerABAM aboard to design it. Bridge construction will require closing the road for up to seven months. That led to a study of ways to divert the approximately 18,000 motor vehicle drivers who use the stretch of road each day.

The alternate route that was chosen takes traffic west on Southwest Stephenson Street and then north on Southwest 35th Avenue. The route passes through a neighborhood with an elementary and a middle school, which led to discussions with the Portland Bureau of Transportation and neighborhood associations.

The project also will provide an opportunity to connect regional trails to those in the Tryon Creek State Natural Area. That required coordination with Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Plus, a variety of utilities must be moved during construction, requiring even more planning time.

Currently, BES hopes to get bids from contractors in early spring 2018.

“It is a pretty significant project,” Moscinski said. “It takes a bit of time when there is this much design work involved.”

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