The Earthquake Ready Burnside Bridge Project team has settled on a design for the replacement of the Portland-based bridge.
The community design advisory group on the project voted in support of an inverted-Y cable stay design. This design features a triangular-shaped tower connected to the bridge with cables that extend to a single column at the top.
Portlanders feel differently, with approximately 20,000 of them ranking the design fourth out of sixth in an online survey. Most of the voters chose an arch bridge design.
The inverted-Y design comes at a higher cost. It is nearly $45 million more than the other designs.
The project has $300 million committed with federal grant funding and the Oregon Legislature.
Multnomah County officials said the project would cost no more than $895 million, however a new cost adjusted for inflation is expected next year.
The project has been in the works since 2015 when an improvement plan found that replacing the bridge with one that can survive an earthquake is a high priority.
-----------------------------------------------------
Source: KGW8, Oregon Live
