PORTLAND, Ore. — This story comes from the Portland Business Journal, a KGW news partner. Click here to read the full article.
A committee for the Earthquake Ready Burnside Bridge Project team voted for an distinctive design for the replacement of the nearly century-old bridge.
The project's community design advisory group voted 14-2 in support of a “inverted-Y” cable stay design Aug. 15, which features a triangular-shaped tower connected to the bridge with cables that extend to a single column at the top.
Several committee members cited the design as reason for their vote, but nearly 20,000 Portlanders ranked it fourth out of six design options in an online survey. The majority of voters chose an arch design, similar to the Fremont Bridge.
There aren’t many inverted-Y bridges in the world. The most notable one is Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge in Boston, and another is under construction in Detroit connecting to Ontario, slated to be finished by next year.
The inverted-Y design also comes with a higher price tag, approximately $45 million more than the other proposed designs. To date, the project has $300 million committed with the help of federal grant funds and the Oregon Legislature.
Multnomah County previously said the effort would cost no more than $895 million, but a new inflation-adjusted cost estimate is expected next spring, according to the county transportation department.
The project has been in the works for nearly a decade, when a 2015 county capital improvement plan found that replacing the bridge with one that can withstand a major earthquake is a “high priority.”
