PORTLAND, Ore. — The Earthquake Ready Burnside Bridge has completed its environmental review process and received a green light from the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), clearing the way for the bridge replacement project to enter the full design phase and start construction as early as 2027.
The project is intended to replace the 98-year-old Willamette River bridge in downtown Portland with a modern structure capable of withstanding a Cascadia-level earthquake. Most of the city's existing river bridges were built before the region's earthquake risks were known, and they're all expected to collapse or be damaged beyond use when the Big One hits.
Multnomah County, which owns most of the bridges, is prioritizing the Burnside Bridge for replacement because its central location will make it a critical route for getting people and emergency supplies across the river in the days immediately following the megaquake.
The FHA published a Record of Decision for the project on Friday, which signals the completion of the four-year federal environmental review process and is an essential prerequisite for projects built using federal funding.
"This is an important step for the project as we head into the Design Phase," design phase project manager Megan Neill said in a statement. "We are excited for what’s to come this year as we ask for community input on important design decisions that will influence the future of the bridge."
The earlier planning phase evaluated the various options for updating the crossing and settled on a high-level design plan for the new bridge. The design phase will flesh that initial concept out into a full architectural plan, finalizing the more precise aesthetic and architectural details by the time the project reaches 100% design in the first half of 2026.
The project has been in the works since 2016, and inflation has forced the team to scale down the design in recent years to bring the costs back down. The current plan calls for a new bridge with four lanes instead of the current crossing's five, and some of the high-level design pieces have switched to more cost-effective options.
The county is aiming to keep the project under $900 million, about a third of which will come from local vehicle registration fees. More than half the funding will need to come from a federal grant, and the county has said it plans to submit its application this summer.
Early construction work is expected to begin in 2026 and the project will wrap up in 2031. Portland will have to make do without the Burnside Bridge in the interim — project planners announced last year that they're going to have to tear the existing bridge down in 2027 and build the new one in the same location.
