Come Together
by Tina Grady Barbaccia
All Together Now
This rendering shows how the new Willamette River Bridge will look upon completion.
bridge project that started out under intense scrutiny in an environmentallysensitive area is now being cheered and even has the locals putting their own touch on the bridge.
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) credits this to using the construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC) approach — where the contractor works with an agency from the beginning of the project instead of after a design has already been developed. The Interstate 5 deck arch type bridge over the Willamette River is a $201-million replacement project located at milepost 192.7, where it crosses the river between the cities of Eugene and Springfield. It was funded by the 2003 Oregon Transportation Investment Act and the federal Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) program. “The biggest advantage [to using a CM/GC approach] is the flexibility to balance the public’s expectations while maintaining the level of public participation the owner wants to provide,” explains Kevin Parrish, project manager with Springfield, Ore.,-based Hamilton Construction, which is the construction manager/general contractor on the bridge project.
Looking north at I-5, pictured (from left to right) are the work bridge, the decommissioned bridge and the new, temporary detour structure. The decommissioned structure in the photo has since been demolished.
20 August 2010 Better Roads