PORTLAND, Ore. — The southern access route to the west end of the St. Johns Bridge has reopened after a four-month closure caused by a landslide.
The southern half of Northwest Bridge Avenue, which carries traffic up and down the hill between the bridge and Northwest St. Helens Road, reopened on Saturday, according to a news release from the Oregon Department of Transportation.
The landslide occurred on the evening of Jan. 5 following a round of heavy rainfall. Fire crews responded and closed the road, and about two weeks later ODOT announced that the closure would need to remain in place for several weeks.
The Bridge Avenue area is known for landslides and rockfall incidents, ODOT spokesman Don Hamilton said at the time, and the agency would need to conduct an emergency repair project at the site.
The job included removing any remaining hazardous vegetation from the slope above the road, then installing a new pinned mesh system to stabilize the hill, which required removing additional rock in order to safely install the anchors that would hold up the mesh.
The mesh system has worked well in other areas of Portland, Hamilton said, but the installation process would take eight to 10 weeks. In the meantime, bridge traffic has had to use the northern half of Bridge Avenue.
The last step in the repair process was to repave the road, ODOT said, which wrapped up early Saturday morning.
