COLUMBIA RIVER OR/WA:New toll bridge study under way

The Portland Port Commission never wanted a bridge built at Longview on the Columbia River because it could help a competitive port so they lobbied in Washington DC for the US authorities to demand extraordinary clearances, hoping the cost of meeting them would scare off the bridge investors. This was back in the 1920s when sailing ships were almost gone but the Feds looked up a manual of the mast heights of the world’s highest masted sailing ships in order to come up with the requirement that it provide 196 feet (60m) clearance, a good 40’ (12m) higher than normally required for ocean going ships. Horizontal clearance was set at 1200’ (366m) twice the 600’ wide shipping channel.

Joseph Strauss bridge

But the investors went ahead anyway and the famous bridge designer Joseph Strauss of Chicago built them what was then the highest and the longest cantilever truss span in North America. Pres Hoover pressed a gold telegraph key at the White House to send a signal across the continent that activated an electric guillotine that severed a barrier of daffodils and another electric contraption unfurled a huge American flag on the high point of the bridge in the opening ceremony in 1930. Then called simply the Longview bridge it was operated by the Longview-Columbia River Bridge Company which had borrowed against toll revenues. The timing couldn’t have been worse, because its opening was followed immediately by the Great Depression. Tolls were 80c for a car, far too much for the time. Only a couple of hundred vehicles used the grand span each day and the Longview bridge company lost money heavily. Bethlehem Steel bought a controlling interest in it in 1935. The company defaulted on its debt, then recovered a bit, but could not accumulate the reserves for restoration of rotting wooden approach spans. In 1947 the company persuaded the state of Washington to buy it, just when postwar prosperity was about to create a boom. Washington State Toll Bridge Authority operated it most successfully as a toll bridge from 1947 and was able to pay off the bonds in 1965 at which time 9m vehicles had crossed it — an average during its life as a toll bridge of just 704/day. The tolls were then removed.

On its 50th anniversary it was renamed the Lewis & Clark bridge in memory of the intrepid pair of US army captains sent by Pres Thomas Jefferson to explore a land route to the Pacific and whose moment of triumph occurred on the Columbia R in 1805.

Now 21,000 vehicles cross its two steep lanes each day, 2400 of them heavy trucks. The next nearest bridges are at Astoria at the ocean 70km west and at Portland 80km south. The L&C bridge is a key to the lumber, pulp, salmon, and steel industries, as well as to workers, tourists and commerce travelling the valley. The big rigs are limited to 9am to 3pm so a decent speed can be maintained over the bridge during rush hours.. Backups can extend a mile each way, as traffic crawls up and down the 6% grades of the mile+ (1640m) long span. Its 2-lane concrete deck is in serious need of reconstruction.

Rosemary Siipola, transp planner at the local MPO says there is strong local support for building a new 2x2 lane bridge since the old bridge is deficient in both strength and size. And it is highly vulnerable to earthquakes. Rehab and maintenance costs of $30 to $50m are forseen over the next 20 years if it is to be maintained for heavy trucks. The bridge is a classic mid-century cantilever truss and has been placed on the Registry of Historic Properities.

Toll, de-toll, fall apart, so toll again. That’s a familiar cycle being repeated here on the Columbia R as the two states see a $130m bill for a new bridge. HNTB just won a $330k contract (beating out Figg, Berger & URS Greiner/WC) to report on the feasibility of a new toll bridge. Siipola says it is fortunate that a lot of the locals still remember the old bridge as a toll bridge. That makes for less resistance to the idea of tolls, which she thinks will be essential to any financing plan for a new bridge.

It’s quite a question whether they should keep the old bridge. One idea is that it might be maintained for light vehicles in emergencies and for walkers and bicylists the rest of the time. It has a lot of history about it. It is located at a narrow point in the river so a new bridge cannot be far very away from it. The 366m span is probably ideal for a cable stayed bridge, but some will say this will clash with the old bridge. HNTB has to produce a set of alternatives and outline costs and prospective toll revenues. (Contacts Rosemary Siipola MPO 360 577 3041x2585, Jeanette Kloos ODOT 503 731 8234, Lee Hollaway HNTB 206 455 3555)