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Downtown Portland bridges to see recurring lifts as water levels rise, expect traffic delays

Higher water levels are forcing downtown Portland bridges to lift more often to let boats pass through the Willamette River.

PORTLAND, Oregon — Water levels have reached 13 feet high along the Willamette River in downtown Portland. That’s due to snow melting from the mountains faster than usual. 

Now, Portland drivers will feel the impact. 

Multnomah County bridge operators said bridges like the Hawthorne Bridge in downtown will be lifted more often over the next week to let vessels pass in higher waters.

Multnomah County Bridge Operations Coordinator Aysha Ghazoul said that once water reaches 12 feet high on the Willamette River, bridges are staffed 24 hours a day.

She said it takes around 10 minutes to lift bridges which can cause traffic delays. But the Hawthorne, Burnside and Morrison bridges will not be lifted during rush hour, from 7-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. during the week.

But Ghazoul said there will be more traffic delays on weekends with more sailboats expected in the Willamette River.

She said higher water leads to operators working overtime.

"For us — as bridge operators — it's just more that everybody is working a tremendous amount of hours, sometimes overtime, just because we do have to staff the bridges 24/7,” Ghazoul said.

She said high waters are expected to last until next Tuesday, but could persist past then.

"Theoretically we'll be in high water at least until Tuesday,” Ghazoul said. “But the river level changes so drastically that we may have another few days added on. So for now we know Tuesday, beyond that we'll just have to wait and see."

Flood levels are 18 feet high along the Willamette. Those high levels are not expected to be reached.

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