The Sauvie Island Bridge crosses the

Multnomah Channel The Multnomah Channel is a distributary of the Willamette River. It diverges from the main stem a few miles upstream of the main stem's confluence with the Columbia River in Multnomah County in the U.S. state of Oregon. The channel flows northw ...

of the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...

near

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The original

Parker truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or s ...

bridge, built in 1950 with a main span, was replaced with a

tied arch bridge A tied-arch bridge is an arch bridge in which the outward horizontal forces of the arch(es) caused by tension at the arch ends to a foundation are countered by equal tension of its own gravity plus any element of the total deck structure such grea ...

with a span in 2008 due to cracks discovered in 2001. In November 2022, the

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thou ...

Board of Commissioners voted to rename the bridge (to a yet-to-be-determined name) in honor of the Native Americans that originally lived on

Sauvie Island Sauvie Island, in the U.S. state of Oregon, originally Wapato Island or Wappatoo Island, is the largest island along the Columbia River, at , and one of the largest river islands in the United States. It lies approximately ten miles northwest of ...

Old bridge

Opened on December 30, 1950, the first bridge to

replaced the Sauvie Island Ferry. The $900,000 bridge was designed by the

Oregon Department of Transportation The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Depar ...

and built by Gilpin Construction. Oregon transferred ownership to

in 1951. Composed of three steel truss spans, it was a total of long, with the main span measuring in length. The approach spans were built of reinforced concrete girders. Green in color, the bridge was wide and carried two lanes of traffic and had sidewalks on both sides. The main span, a

, sat above the water line and handled an average of 3,800 vehicles per day.

New bridge

Sauvie Island Bridge (second) - roadway view

After cracks were found in the 1950 span in 2001,

restricted weight and speed on the bridge.Wortman, Sharon Wood, Ed Wortman, and James B. Norman. 2006. ''The Portland Bridge Book''. Portland, OR: Urban Adventure Press. . pp. 102-104. Early designs for a new bridge were submitted in July 2004, and groundbreaking was held on January 4, 2006. The new $38 million span was designed by H2L2 Architecture with David Evans & Associates as the design engineers, and built by Max J. Kuney Company. Located at river mile three, the main span is long and rests above the water. The main span is of a

tied arch A tied-arch bridge is an arch bridge in which the outward horizontal forces of the arch(es) caused by tension at the arch ends to a foundation are countered by equal tension of its own gravity plus any element of the total deck structure such grea ...

design constructed of steel, while the approach spans are a box-girder style using pre-stressed concrete. The bridge has two lanes of traffic with shoulders and sidewalks on both sides for a total width of 66 feet. The bridge was floated into place after it was constructed. In March 2006, then-

city commissioner City commission government is a form of local government in the United States. In a city commission government, voters elect a small commission, typically of five to seven members, typically on a plurality-at-large voting basis. These commissione ...

Sam Adams Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and ...

proposed reusing the Sauvie Island bridge span as a bicycle/pedestrian bridge over Interstate 405 in

downtown Portland Downtown Portland is the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found. ...

, as part of the Burnside/Couch Transportation and Urban Design Plan. A coalition of Portland community groups including the Pearl District Neighborhood Association and the

Bicycle Transportation Alliance The Street Trust (formerly the Bicycle Transportation Alliance) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit advocacy organization based in Portland, Oregon, United States. The Street Trust advocates for the safety and ease of biking, walking and riding public t ...

supported the idea. Adams ultimately retracted the proposal, realizing the cost would likely be more than the $5.5 million he had originally stated. The $43 million new bridge opened June 23, 2008. The old bridge was removed in August 2008 and was scrapped at

Schnitzer Steel Industries Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc. is a steel manufacturing and scrap metal recycling company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. History Schnitzer Steel was founded by Russian immigrant Sam Schnitzer in 1906 as a one-person scrap metal recycler. B ...

References

External links

Sauvie Island Bridge
page on Multnomah County website
Special Coverage of the Flanders Street Bridge Project
- BikePortland.org {{Bridges of Portland, Oregon Bridges over the Willamette River Bridges completed in 1950 Tied arch bridges in the United States Bridges completed in 2008 Sauvie Island Road bridges in Oregon 2008 establishments in Oregon 1950 establishments in Oregon Steel bridges in the United States Bridges in Multnomah County, Oregon

Old bridge

New bridge

See also

References

External links