PORTLAND, Ore. — A section of the road that connects the St. Johns Bridge to Highway 30 in Northwest Portland is expected to be closed until early spring after a landslide earlier this month, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).
"We expect Northwest Bridge Avenue on the east side of the St. Johns Bridge will remain closed until late March or early April 2022," ODOT spokesman Don Hamilton said in a news release.
The road has been closed since Jan. 5 due to the landslide, which occurred after heavy rainfall.
Hamilton said ODOT will conduct emergency repairs to address rockfall problems along the part of the road where the slide occurred, which will impact traffic traveling northwest from downtown.
"We evaluated several repair options and ODOT geotechnical engineers determined that the best solution is a pinned mesh system, which will stabilize the slope and minimize the potential for additional rockfall events on the road," he said.
The pinned mesh system has worked successfully in other areas of Portland, most recently along the ramp from Southwest Jefferson Street to Highway 26 westbound, Hamilton said.
So far, transportation crews have removed vegetation from the slope and performed rock scaling to take down loose, unstable rock from the hillside. The pinned mesh installation is expected to take about eight to 10 weeks to complete.