TriMet held the first ride on the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Transit Project between downtown Portland and northern Clackamas County Friday. Approximately 500 people rode two of the agency’s new Type 5 light rail vehicles on the 7.3-mile future MAX Orange Line from the Lincoln St/SW 3^rd Avenue Station near Portland State University to the SE Park Avenue Station in Oak Grove. After a short ceremony and remarks by public officials, the trains returned to downtown Portland.

Work on the approximately $1.49 billion project is nearing completion and is millions of dollars under budget. Systems testing is slated for completion this month, with operations training and simulated service to take from June through September before service begins Sept. 12.

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A MAX train crossed the TriMet‘s new Tilikum Crossing bridge using its own power for the first time Wednesday.  The train began at the new Southwest 4^th Avenue/ Lincoln Street station and progressed at a walking speed through downtown and the South Waterfront before crossing the bridge and stopping at the future OMSI/Southeast Water Avenue station.

The train was run to test the overhead catenary electrical systems, as well as signaling and the train’s interface with the track. Tests were conducted on both sets of tracks spanning the bridge, and officials expected that a Portland Streetcar train would be tested today, as well.

The $134 million Tilikum Crossing is part of the $1.49 billion Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Project, which spans 7.3 miles from Oak Grove to downtown Portland. The line is scheduled to open September 12.

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One of the busiest buildings used by the drivers who pilot TriMet buses around Portland was also one of the public transportation agency’s most outdated.

The building on Center Street is supposed to serve as a home away from home for the bus operators. But after 20 years without an upgrade, the building seemed anything but. Bright orange carpet covered the floors, bland gray lockers lined the walls, and dark spaces sucked up light in the building.

So when the opportunity came to remodel the building as part of work on the Portland-to-Milwaukie light-rail project, TriMet decided to try a new approach by involving bus drivers, manager and agents – the very people who used the building the most – in the redesign.

“We wanted to take a whole new approach in how we looked at our operating basis,” said Shelly Lomax, TriMet’s executive director of transportation.

For most of the building the agency relied on a traditional design approach, working with Eugene-based Pivot Architecture. But TriMet and Pivot felt the upgrade for the first-floor areas used most often by bus operators required a fresh set of eyes, said Harriet Cherry, a Pivot principal. So they turned to Ziba Design, a Portland firm that bills itself as a “design and innovation consultancy.”

Working closely with Pivot, Ziba’s team began interviewing users of the first-floor spaces.

“We spoke with employees, drivers, upper managers, trainers, anyone who operates in that space,” said Cale Thompson, Ziba’s creative director. “Our goal was to understand the intent of the use of the area and the needs.

Through the information gathering phase, for example, Ziba’s team learned that the first-floor space functioned in several different ways on a daily basis, Thompson said.

The building needed to provide a transition zone for operators as they either prepared to start a shift or head home after the work day. For some operators, that transition time meant chatting with colleagues. For others, it meant a quiet place to read or listen to music.

“Twice a day, the drivers are transitioning. Sometimes it’s been a really rough day, and they’re expected to make a transition to ‘regular me’ after being out in the field,” Thompson said. “One guy said he would sit in his car and listen to music for 10 or 15 minutes, but there weren’t spaces for that.”

The building also needed to provide space for personal time for operators who might be on a break between shifts. One operator, for example, lived two hours away from the facility. So he preferred to stay on site if he had a break shorter than four hours.

“We took each of those insights and immediately tried to turn it into an opportunity,” Thompson said.

TriMet also had asked Ziba to a find a way to open up the working environment, putting managers and station agents in closer contact with operators while also providing spaces where private meetings could be held.

To fulfill that request, Ziba removed the glass partition that walled in station agents and kept them separated from the drivers, increasing communication. Managers were taken out of what Lomax described as “little, dark offices in the back.”

For managers who need to hold private conversations with employees, Ziba came up with what Thompson calls a “fishbowl” area. The glass-walled room allows for quiet conversations while also maintaining contact with the rest of the first-floor area.

While a significant portion of the first-floor remodel called for serious design work, other areas were revamped with simpler fixes.

One area, for example, was plastered with communication – fliers and notices – that no one read. TriMet figured it was because the area was too dark. After talking to drivers and agents, though, Ziba learned that no one checked the space because the information was all outdated, year-old information. A simple tweak of procedure helped solve the problem.

Even though the user needs for the first floor were varied, they all contained a common thread, according to Thompson.

“There was a high level of ownership,” he said. “It was kind of a one-for-all (mindset).”

At a time when employers are increasingly finding that workforces are transient and short-term focused, TriMet is an anomaly. Thompson and his team learned that many TriMet employees are married to each other. They met three generations of women from a single family – grandmother, mother and daughter – who all work for the agency. Those bonds create a unique work environment that also created a unique environment for designing a project, according to Thompson.

“I think we were blown away by … the shared sense of commitment,” he said.

Pivot Architecture’s team also found the experience of working on the TriMet facility – and with Ziba – eye-opening.

“Ziba’s an unusual company; they look at things differently,” Cherry said. “We learned a lot working side by side with them. We learned different ways of asking questions (of clients and building users).”

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The 184-foot span of the new Lafayette Street pedestrian overcrossing was lifted into place Dec. 23 in Southeast Portland’s Brooklyn neighborhood. Part of the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Project, the new bridge will allow pedestrians to cross over Union Pacific rail tracks between Southeast Rhine and Lafayette Streets. The bridge replaces an older wooden overcrossing dating to the early 1940’s that was demolished this past summer.

The 70-ton steel span was fabricated in Tigard by Fought & Company, then shipped in three pieces to Portland and assembled on site. Crews with Ness & Campbell Crane and ironworkers with REFA Erection set the span in place. Lorentz Bruun Construction will continue working on the deck, installing stairs and elevators on the bridge, which is slated to open in the summer of 2015.

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The length of the stairs leading up to a new TriMet pedestrian bridge in Southeast Portland ultimately helped shape its design.

Initial plans for the $3.9 million Lafayette Street pedestrian and bicyclist crossing over railroad tracks to provide access to the future Rhine Street/Southeast 17th Avenue orange line light-rail station called for a taller bridge than the one being built. But the set of stairs up to it would have to zigzag with obstructed landings that could potentially attract crime, said Christopher Pitt, a structural engineer with KPFF Consulting Engineers. This concerned TriMet officials working together with KPFF on the bridge design, he said.

“They care a lot about security and safety (and) looking at sightlines,” he said. “That’s something that TriMet focuses on a lot in the design process.”

Pitt and other KPFF staffers proposed an alternative. Instead of a precast concrete girder bridge, a truss bridge with a lower deck could be accessed via a shorter, straight set of stairs.

“We started looking at alternatives and we thought a steel truss would just bring it as low as possible,” Pitt said. “With steel truss, you can put the walking surface to the bottom of the structure. That shortened the stair length. We can have pretty much straight stair runs. You’ll see where you’re going the whole time.”

Lorentz Bruun Construction crews this past fall started building the 184-foot-long steel truss bridge. Last week, a project milestone was reached when crews used a crane to lower in place the approximately 50-ton span onto two 47-foot-tall steel-framed elevator towers that double as bridge supports on either end of the railroad tracks.

The new Lafayette Street crossing will fill the void left after demolition this past summer of a deteriorating span built in the 1940s to provide access over Union Pacific Railroad tracks. That bridge, owned by Union Pacific, was “functionally obsolete,” Pitt said.

Union Pacific and TriMet are sharing the cost of the replacement project. TriMet will own and maintain the new bridge, which will cross between Southeast Rhine and Lafayette streets to line up with a signaled crosswalk leading to the new MAX orange line station.

The project is part of TriMet’s larger $1.49 billion effort to create the 7.3-mile Portland-to-Milwaukie orange line, which is slated to open in September 2015. The project includes $65 million in improvements to maximize access by pedestrians and bicyclists to light-rail stations.

Besides a shorter stair length, project engineers concluded that a steel truss bridge would have other advantages over a concrete girder span, said Leah Robbins, TriMet civil engineer and east segment director for the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Transit Project. A truss structure fit better into the tight space available for the bridge, and that type of span was easier to transport and install with minimal impacts on the active rail lines below, she said.

Safe passage across the bridge for both pedestrians and bicyclists was the top consideration in the design, Robbins said. The bridge will have clear glass elevator cabs for added visibility, closed-circuit cameras and ample lighting. The design team also reviewed bridge plans with TriMet security officials.

“It was (a) struggle to get the precise alignment of the stairway, elevator access and the span direction so there was good visibility for pedestrians at all levels … so they’re not entering an unanticipated area,” Robbins said.

Bicyclists will be better served by the new bridge than the old one, Pitt said. The deck width will be 12 feet – twice the width of its predecessor. Also, the bridge stair width will be 8 feet – up from 2 feet – and have tire gutters for walking bicycles up and down. The elevators will be larger to accommodate bicycles with trailers and have doors on either side so bicyclists won’t have to turn around or back out to exit.

Both the bridge and the elevator towers are being built primarily with raw steel that will weather over time to gain a deep rust color, Pitt said. This weathering will form a protective layer around the steel, eliminating the expense of paint and paying homage to the industrial setting, he said.

“When you can make (weathering steel) work, it’s very economical,” he said. “It kind of has a nice aesthetic to it.”

The new bridge is close to Pitt’s home, and he said he’s looking forward to visiting the crossing when it’s complete next summer. It won’t be part of his regular bike commute, but will come in handy if a train happens to go by.

“I’m certainly going to go down there and take my daughter,” Pitt said. “This way you can get across whether or not there’s a train.”

Lafayette Street pedestrian bridge

Location: near Southeast 17th Avenue/Rhine Street station for future MAX orange line

Cost: $3.9 million

Construction start date: October 2014

Anticipated completion date: summer 2015

Owner: TriMet

Architect: Merryman Barnes Architects

Design engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers

Mechanical engineer: Interface Engineering

Electrical engineer: LTK Engineering Services

General contractor: Stacy and Witbeck Inc.

Subcontractor: Lorentz Bruun Construction

Steel fabricator: Fought & Co.

Bridge truss erector: REFA Erection Inc.

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