Bridging Over Challenges to Make New Connections: Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People

September 11, 2015

By Alan Lehto, TriMet Director Policy & Planning and Dave Unsworth, TriMet Director Project Development & Permitting

On Saturday, Sept. 12, when the Tilikum Crossing Bridge opens for regular service, this region will make history again.

First, in some ways this was the bridge that couldn’t be.

For more than 40 years, no new bridge had been built across the Willamette River. The last one was the Fremont Bridge in 1973 and before that the Marquam in 1966. Both of those freeway bridges were built during the heyday of freeway construction before the backlash really started changing priorities in this region and, eventually, throughout the country.

September 11, 2015

By Alan Lehto, TriMet Director Policy & Planning and Dave Unsworth, TriMet Director Project Development & Permitting

On Saturday, Sept. 12, when the Tilikum Crossing Bridge opens for regular service, this region will make history again.

First, in some ways this was the bridge that couldn’t be.

For more than 40 years, no new bridge had been built across the Willamette River. The last one was the Fremont Bridge in 1973 and before that the Marquam in 1966. Both of those freeway bridges were built during the heyday of freeway construction before the backlash really started changing priorities in this region and, eventually, throughout the country.

Before that, 1958 saw the opening of the Morrison Bridge, which was just a rebuild of two previous bridges – the first opening in 1887! And before that, you have to go all the way back to 1931 and the opening of the St. Johns Bridge to find a new connection that even allowed pedestrians. That was 84 years ago.

It’s not just the numbers and the length of time. Despite the people swimming and lounging on the dock just south of the Hawthorne Bridge all this summer, the river is still in a very long recovery period after more than a century of use and abuse. Salmon and endangered species issues have more of an effect on what can be done in the river.

At the same time, navigation on the river is constrained. With multiple bridges and a snaking river, barges from Ross Island, tour boats and other vessels requiring navigational headway, the complexities severely limited where bridge supports could be placed. Yet the river is far too wide to span without supports in the river. At the beginning, it wasn’t clear that a new bridge could be permitted. Even with the re-construction of the Sellwood Bridge just a year or two behind TriMet was trying to build a brand-new bridge on a new alignment that never had a bridge before.

When counted, it took 43 permits, approvals or “mother-may-I” requests to move from conceptual design to construction of this new cable-stayed bridge.

The most complicated and the one that came closest to delaying the project was the U.S. Coast Guard Permit. This permit required National Environmental Policy Act Clearance, Section 7 consultation for Threatened and Endangered Species Act for migrating salmon, Section 106 consultation for Tribal issues, and the issuance of the Section 404 permit for filling of wetlands and waterways.

TriMet understood that the bottom of the Willamette River included PCB’s and other hazardous materials from decades of adjacent industrial activities. The flow of the river around and behind the two supporting piers for Tilikum Crossing was expected to create a scour affect in the river bottom, which means it would stir up those contaminants into the water again.

From the beginning, TriMet had worked to minimize any potential impact. Other bridge designs would likely have required four piers in the water, increasing the potential negative impact. The cable-stayed design, beautiful in its execution, is also eminently practical. It allowed a thin bridge that maximized river clearance, still met at-grade intersections at both sides of the river, and only required two piers in the water.

But even just two piers still presented the potential for scour. TriMet, working with HNTB, an engineering, architecture and planning firm, developed designs that included sand, articulated concrete mats, and river rock that protected against re-suspension, keeping the contaminated materials locked away. But that wasn’t the end of the challenge: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fisheries found that adding river rock is considered rip-rap and that this action required fish mitigation for NOAA to finish the consultation.

TriMet, working with the Portland Bureau of Environmental Service and Portland Parks and Recreation, was able to co-locate fish mitigation with the South Waterfront Central District Greenway Trail Project that was also tied up in a Gordian knot with NOAA fisheries. In the end, TriMet funded 25,000 square feet of shallow-water fish mitigation that allowed Tilikum Crossing and the City’s Central District Greenway project to move forward.

The U.S. Coast Guard permit action also required the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to issue a conditional letter of map revision to the floodway as a result of a mathematically minor increase — less than 1/10 of an inch increase.

This required each jurisdiction from Portland to Willamette Falls in Oregon City (if you’re counting this is Portland, Milwaukie, Gladstone, Lake Oswego, Oregon City and Multnomah and Clackamas Counties) to write a letter to FEMA noting the de minimus increase. It also required notification of all property owners in writing about the theoretical increase in the floodway resulting from Tilikum Crossing’s two in-water piers. Getting all of these jurisdictions to sign off on these letters was akin to a minor miracle – not because of reluctance but just the sheer weight of time, process and coordination.

The 404 Permit was further complicated because a private company was trying to secure a 404 permit at the same time for the removal of docks and the in-water mitigation for hazardous materials resulting from years of ship building and demolition on the west bank of the Willamette River. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Water Quality staff was concerned about the coordination and potential impacts of the two projects so near each other. After a series of very technical meetings with a hydromorphologist, hazardous materials experts, and construction staff from both projects, we were able reach a modified approach that protected against re-suspension of contaminated materials and coordination between the two projects. The clearance for the DEQ water quality staff allowed the issuance of the 401 certification required for the issuance of the 404 permit.

After the 404 permit was issued, all that remained was the issuance of the U.S. Coast Guard Permit.

TriMet planned to start bridge construction on July 1, 2011. The in-water work period was key: only during four months of every year is work even allowed in the water.

In-water construction in the Willamette River is only allowed from July 1 to October 31 when migratory fish are not in this stretch of the river. This is necessary to help protect salmon and other species, but you can imagine what it does to critical path schedules.

A short delay suddenly balloons to a year or more if you don’t take full advantage of that work window. A year’s delay on a big project can easily blow up the budget.

TriMet had been working with the Coast Guard for four years in preparation for applying for the key Coast Guard in-water work permit and applied for the permit in July 2010. Because the 404 permit was issued on June 17, 2011, the Coast Guard permit had to be issued before the end of June — nine working days — so work could begin in the narrow in-water work period.

The key U.S. Coast Guard staff person who needs to approve the final permit announced that he would retire on July 1, which in itself was not a problem. But he was involved in an accident and was off work without forwarded messages or staff assigned to his cases.

After years of effort, bad luck almost caused a critical delay.

In the end, after much consternation, the U.S. Coast Guard Permit was issued 10 days later on June 27th — four days before construction started.

That was the happy ending, but until then the sight of two derrick barges in the Willamette River with no permit to start work resulted in prayers and sleepless nights.

At the end, after 43 permits, construction started. Those swimmers off the dock near the Hawthorne Bridge may not know it, but the bridge helps them too – as it does the salmon and other fish that use the river during the rest of the year.

Connections with places, our past and the river

This bridge is unlike any other bridge in the United States. It will carry the new MAX Orange Line light rail, two TriMet bus lines, the A- and B-loop of the Portland Streetcar, pedestrians and bicycles. It is 1,720 feet in length with 14-foot-wide paths for cyclists and pedestrians on each side (the same width allocated to light rail, streetcar, and bus). Among other issues, neither South Waterfront nor the OMSI area would have been able to accommodate the demand of through car traffic if the bridge had included a general purpose traffic lane. So, although it made logical sense at the intensely local level, nationally it has raised quite a bit of attention.

When one of the authors, Alan Lehto, came to Portland State University as a graduate student in Urban and Regional Planning, one of the touted projects in town was the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Now lost in the flood of bicycle projects around the city, seldom used and not up to any modern standards, at the time, it was noteworthy in tourist information and in the stories told about Portland. This asphalt path, all of two-tenths of a mile long, was built parallel to U.S. 26 near the Vista Ridge Tunnels in Goose Hollow. “Look at what quirky little Portland did for bikes,” people would say.

Now, the Tilikum Crossing Bridge, with its connections to transit, walking and cycling facilities on both ends, will help tell a whole new story of how this region thinks about the need for people to have many choices in how they get around.

Tilikum Crossing will also take a step further in how it fits into the cityscape. At night, colorful LED lights will wash the structure and cables in light. The 178 LED light placed on 40 bridge cables will change colors based on the Willamette River’s speed, height, and water temperature. If you saw any of the tests, the lights are beautiful and the visible feedback of the state of the river will help us further connect to this vital piece of our community’s landscape. In case you’re wondering: the temperature determines the base color, the speed controls the pace that colors change and move, and the height of the river is displayed by a second color that will move vertically up and down the towers.

The name also helps connect us just a little bit more to the peoples who lived in this area for 14 millennia before a city began to grow here. Tilikum means “people”, “tribe” and “relatives” in Chinook Wawa, an international language spoken by the first Oregonians (before there was an Oregon) and later learned and spoken by explorers, fur traders, and settlers.

Transit and trail improvements

This bridge and improvements on each side will make new connections for light rail (obviously), streetcar (it will “complete the loop”), bicyclists, and for pedestrians. The Orange Line makes new connections at 10 stations stretching from the south end of downtown, through Southeast Portland and Milwaukie to Park Ave in Oak Grove. And the transit connections extend far beyond, with connections to 11 bus lines serving Clackamas County, Gladstone, and Oregon City. Places that get much more frequent service with the changes include King Rd between Milwaukie and Clackamas Town Center, River Road, Linwood, Harmony and Providence Milwaukie, as well as Clackamas Height. The number of bus trips between downtown Oregon City and Clackamas Community College, spanning the length of Oregon City almost double during many parts of the day and week. Cycling into downtown from many areas in southeast Portland and beyond will be easier, as will the connection to the Springwater Trail. There’s bicycle counters on Tilikum Crossing.. Together with the counter on the Hawthorne, we’ll have more data about how people respond to major new connections for cycling. If only we had a pedestrian counter as well.

And it’s not just the obvious new options to get to work, school, or other needs. It will eventually allow the extension of the Esplanade loop. When the Eastside Esplanade opened in 2001 (the same year as the first Streetcar line), it added a new activity – jogging, walking or cycling around downtown using the Hawthorne, the Steel Bridge and both sides of the Willamette River. Now, using Moody Ave for a short distance, and eventually using the extension of the riverside path, the Esplanade loop gets much longer and introduces new places.

Beautiful bridge ready for ‘the big one’

The new bridge looks great, but it also offers the latest in seismic stability.

Scientists can’t tell us when it will happen, but someday a really big earthquake will hit this region. All those old bridges were built before we understood earthquakes like we do now. Masses of concrete on wooden pilings sunk deep – but not deep enough – into river silt, many with tall top-heavy lift towers, these old bridges are beautiful and functional, but don’t rely on them in an earthquake.

Tilikum Crossing and the new Sellwood were built with this knowledge. If the ‘Big One’ hits during your lifetime, remember these are the bridges to think about using to cross the river. Surviving the big one is a legacy we hope we will never need to face ourselves but realistically know is possible any time. That is a legacy of resilience this bridge will leave for future generations.

Support for development and innovation

Tilikum Crossing, with the new access it provides, sets the stage for future development on both sides of the river. The Innovation Quadrant ties together Portland State University, Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland Community College and the Portland Opera into a powerhouse of learning and innovation. The bridge helps tie these places and people together, helping make the river an amenity rather than a barrier to collaboration.

Cities are built over time in direct response to their access and mobility infrastructure. Portland’s most popular neighborhoods were almost universally built around old streetcar lines (Hawthorne, Division, Northwest 23rd, Mississippi, Northeast 28th, Vancouver-Williams, Multnomah Village, Alberta and more all developed around streetcars or interurbans a century ago) or new streetcar lines (Pearl District and South Waterfront). Newer communities are being built or growing around light rail (Orenco, Quatama, Civic Neighborhood, Lloyd District, and Hollywood). These services leave their long-term stamp on the future development of the communities they serve. In the future, we’ll be able to look back at the bridge and the places it helped build on both sides of the river with the same understanding of just how profound that new access was.