The Columbian from Vancouver, Washington • 2

Sunday Doc 12 112 Vancouvr Wah 3 CROSSING THI COLUMBIA AGAIN I I A1 The COLUMBIAN I2222Z23E2S It's a 'tfnirst' Using methods familiar in Europe but relatively new here main span is longest of its type in the Americas for now place When each cast section was adequately cured the framework was moved over it to cast the next piece For months during the girder installation the bridge took on the appearance of something from a Saturday morning television cartoon where the character builds his own bridge in thin air with nary a support Cantilever methods allowed the piers to take on the appearance of huge "TsA during construction with no supporting structure or cables above or below As the deck was built away from the piers the top bar of the became longer until it reached a similar reaching out from an adjacent pier Building the gravity-defying arms which were as long as 300 feet was a balancing act: as each girder section was added another had to be spliced to the opposite arm lest the pier snap like the trunk of an ice-laden tree Never were the piers more than one section out of balance In the case of the bridge superstructure simply fastening together hundreds of concrete sections would have left the span with all the strength a two-mile-long potato chip The secret to the bridge's toughness is 6000 tons of steel cable hidden like muscle tendons under the concrete The cable was installed in hundreds of conduits running lengthwise and crosswise through the roadway and tightened (engineers called It posttensioning) to strengthen the structure But such description oversimplifies the thousands of hours of design and testing that had to be done before the first shovel of dirt was turned in August 1977 A cardboard box jammed with plans and documents and stashed away in the Bellevue office of Sverdrup and Parcel is testimony to the head-scratching calculator punching and model building that went into the project Sverdrup and Parcel is the engineering firm that designed the north channel section between Vancouver and Government Island It was the most difficult piece because of its height (roughly 180 feet above the river with 144 feet of clearance at low water) and long spans Marvin Perala a Sverdrup engineer who supervised the 1-205 Bridge design said segmental construction was chosen in part because it minimizes erection of formwork One alternative for instance might have been to build the 600-foot main span on land and lift it in place much the way the Fremont center span was erected and a risky job at best Other ideas such as a suspension bridge quickly were ruled out to avoid conflicts with Portland International Airport traffic at the south end "Building anything above roadway there is just not said Perala Oregon Department of Transportation engineers designed the Government Island and south channel sections Sverdrup and Parcel also designed the piece of the bridge on the Washington shore Several methods were used for one of the most critical phases of work tieing the piers to Columbia River bottom Beneath sand and muck lies the Troutdale formation a layer of rock and sediment several hundred feet thick atop which the bridge piers sit Although the material can be blasted apart with a stream of water it is extremely solid Mid Tom Gaffney of Sverdrup and Parcel Cofferdams of sheet steel piling driven into the river bed were used in the construction of Piers 12 and 13 those on opposite sides of the navigation cbanel River bottom was dredged out cofferdams built and river water pumped out Fifteen feet below the river bottom and 55 below the river surface workers poured the huge concrete blocks atop which the piers sit On the Washington shore earth was excavated to the Troutdale formation for footing construction A fancier technique for piers beneath the bridge's southern half used a 1 million barge-mounted device called the to set cages of steel bar surrounded by a steel form on the river bottom Once there the 50-ton form shaped something like a huge upside-down flatbottomed ice cream cone was filled with concrete Then the form was popped off leaving the exposed pier Wednesday those piers prove their worth when first of a new opens to motorists the taxpayers who chipped in for the $175 million project Perala Hid he will be among the engineers and politicians at the noon opening ceremony Because the project took so long some of the significance of the dedication will be lost for him he Hid Still been looking forward to it for a long he uid I see the first car go across it that's when it will get to Piers on Washington shore looked like this in July 1980 Bridge deck extended nearly 300 feet with no support A lineal foot of the bridge weighs 12 to 15 tons at one point each pier balanced about 16 million pounds of steeland concrete By THOMAS RYLL TIm Columbian In the years following World War II engineers were faced with an awesome task: reconstructing buildings and bridges that had been reduced to twisted steel by waves of allied bombers Many of Europe's factories lay in ruins months away from full production: steel was in short supply But work could not wait and the answer was renewed interest in prestressed concrete the melding of concrete and steel The Interstate 205 Bridge with its smooth steel-strengthened concrete legs and arms is a direct descendant of that work But Europe's influence on the bridge's design extends beyond the prestressing method The 11750-foot crossing employs segmental construction involving the fusing of hundreds of chunks of roadway section a technique used for years overseas but rare here When the bridge opens Wednesday it will be added to a list of similar projects including crossings in Bendorf Germany and in Medway England Frustrated commuters hae not been the only ones watching the bridge's progress it has been the subject of several technical journal articles Engineering News-Record a McGraw-Hill magazine has labeled the 1-205 span first of a new generation" For a few months at least the bridge will have the longest main span of any of its type in the Americas But engineering feats like track and field records seem destined to be outdone: the Houston Ship Channel in Texas now under construction will have a 750-foot main span versus about 600 for longest The bridge actually is two built side-by-side and joined with concrete slabs that form a 9-foot-wide bike and pedestrian path Roadway pieces correctly called concrete box girder sections form the bridge superstructure Some 540 sections no two of which were identical were built at a Columbia Industrial Park manufacturing site and barged 5 miles to the bridge where they were lifted into place Where the lift would have been too high such as above the navigation channel near the Washington shore special steel framework called forms" allowed 15-foot-long roadway sections to be cast in Accidents took lives of 3 men By THOMAS RYU The Columbian For a reason no me will know Bill Kennedy Jr did not fasten the last of six safety straps the morning of March 23 1979 The straps secured a scaffold bolted to an Interstate 205 Bridge pier Kennedy perhaps distracted by other thoughts either did not see or did not bother to tie the sixth strap as he began removing the scaffold bolts so the framework could be removed A few minutes after 9 am the framework tilted Kennedy fell 65 feet Had he been working above the Columbia River like other co-workers that day he might be wisecracking today about his mistake Instead he hit ground packed concrete-hard by heavy equipment working around the bridge pier Kennedy 32 had survived nearly five years of Vietnam Navy duty He did not survive the impact with the Washington shore: traumatic were listed on his death certificate In plunging from the scaffold Kennedy 32 became the first of three workers who died building the mammouth bridge Twenty months later in December 1980 two men perished when a nearly 200-foot-tall crane toppled from between two unfinished piers slapping the river's surface Winds that might have reached 60 mph and a flawed steel beam supporting the crane were later blamed in an investigation by Oregon's Accident Prevention Division Only a week or two before his death Kennedy Ht in front of his mother Dorothy Kennedy of Washou-gal and Hid he was going to leave the 1-205 job she Hid Hid I'm going to quit that killed 67 there he'd but situation The prophecy inherent by could mother injury of the holding workers Span FROM PAGE Al from Beaverton passing up Lloyd Center Washington Square Beaverton Mall and other shopping spots to come to Clark County Most Clark County residents are now closer to Portland International Airport's terminal than the bulk of Portlanders The bridge also opens up recreation possibilities for residents of both states And the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge is suddenly much closer to the dense population of metropolitan Portland That prospect has worried environmentalists for years They picture swarms of urbanites rushing up the river to despoil the natural beauty unimpeded by sufficient land-use law For two years under the rubric Friends of the Gorge they have pushed for federal control to uve the beauty so far without much support from the Washington side If their furs are going to become reality the first signs haven't shown up yet even though ule" signs have sprouted in the Gorge Not many of the signs have hooked buyers Nor have similar signs up the freeway corridor to the Salmon Creek junction with 1-5 Real estate agents in the area report increasing interest but no Hies yet to break the chill that set in with high interest rates two-years ago Dave Wood controller for Gens tar uid none of the firm's 390 prepared building lots in Cascade Park has sold in recent months has bun some interest lately however" Wood uid after the holidays we'll see some closings if interest rates stay where they are or drop" Wood's careful optimism was characteristic of developers and real 1 estate brokers in the weeks before the bridge opened They may regain the hopes of prior years when traffic actually gets rolling but reality has dimmed the bright edges of former dreams Workers recently were putting the finishing touches on a sweeping curve of the new bridge just north of Government Island many times Investigators also found cutting torch notches and an old crack that had weakened the beam Despite those discoveries a January report found "insufficient information to allege that the company (SJ Groves of Minneapolis and Guy Atkinson San Francisco) had violated the Oregon Safe Louis Gregory 21 of Woodburn Ore and Vancouver's Robert Kirby 32 a carpenter riding in a steel cage suspended from the crane's boom Kirby was a 1966 Hudson's Bay High School graduate and had worked as a Fred Meyer cashier and at other construction jobs Kennedy a Washougal High School graduate was a welder carpenter and equipment operator who turned to construction after leaving the Navy Dorothy Kennedy uid she has no plans to be among the first motorists to cron the bridge Wednesday "I don't want nothing to do with it" she uid miss him so much yet I don't even like it when I have to drive under tions at the top of 150-foot-tall columns and in the case of the second accident on a tall crane in heavy wind A Washington Department of Labor investigation placed the cause of death on his shoulders nothing here (in the accident report) to indicate that the employer (Peter Kiewit Sons' Co) could have done anything to prevent the accident or that any devices failed in any uid Tim Monahan labor department spokesman The Oregon report on the Dec 2 1980 crane toppling uid a steel support beam that affixed the crane to the concrete bridge pier was up to 30 years old and had job Somebody is going to get out recalled Dorothy had a premonition I just Ht looking at him He uid maybe go up to the (Bonneville) dam he would have been in the nine up construction tragic was prompted more by the dangers of the project than unufe working conditions that have been prevented his indicated Opportunities for death or serious were everywhere during much project: in the steel cofferdams back the river's waters so could prepare pier founda There were no citations or penalties from the Oregon department Later the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed two 800 fines They were related reduced to $200 each which the firm paid The crash killed crane operator Bicyclists will sniff fumes en route to Oregon getaways On the ume level the roadway a 2-foot-high concrete barrier topped by a 2 Vi -foot metal railing separates you from traffic (Although there wu no traffic when this ride wu taken) A 10-foot-wide emergency lane separates you from the fastest lane of traffic After the fastest lane coma the faster lane then the fast lane and finally the slow lane (for thou motorists foolish enough to drive the speed limit) Another concrete barrier and guard rail along the outer edge completes the landscape Imagine yourself riding down the middle of the Portland airport tarmac trying to observe the flowers and grass along the edges That is the ume feeling you have riding across the 1-205 Bridge bike path with 70 feet of pavement on either side of you Add to that four lanes of care coming at you at 60 mph and four lana of care coming from behind you at 60 mph with all the commensurate noise and carbon monoxide and you have a less than enjoyable tete-a-tete with Mother Nature quarter-mile through the woods benuth the bridge Looking like the ramp into Nuh's Ark the bike path shoots skyward between the two concrete spans overhead This is probably the steepest part of the entire trip (When I rode this stretch recently a metal fence with barbed wire prevented me from taking this short jaunt I had to drive to the top chi the freeway park my car and ride on the road deck to the point where the ramp meets the bridge I then lifted my bike over the concrete and metal barrier to continue on the bike path) At this point you are at the highest point on the bridge 130 feet higher than the Oregon side first impressions are of the trememdous vistas that suddenly open up There is Mount Hood big and boistrous on the left Slightly to the right you look down on the Portland airport alive with activity Straight ahead the birch trees of Government Island stand like a curtain a curtain that has been only partly opened to allow progress through And it's all down hill! Toe rim-jarring bump of several expansion joints quickly brings the bicyclist back to reality Taking a look around you realize that you're still in the hurt of our high-speed world In fart smack in the middle of it By LARRY WINSLOW The Columbian For an afterthought the new 1-205 Bridge bike path is a marvelously smooth and simple straight shot that opens new territory for fair-weather bicyclists But as an enriching experience giving one a sense of the power and beauty of the Columbia River bicycles and pedestrians have once again taken a back seat Design of the bridge was nearly completed several years ago when somebody decided that pedestrians and bicycles should have some way to get across also Thus two sweeping parallel ribbons of concrete separated by nine feet of nothingness became two swuping parallel ribbons joined by a concrete plug in the middle That plug is the bike path Any bicyclist who has tried to negotiate the myriad twists loops stop lights potholes dividers and narrow lanes of the 1-5 Bridge bike path will immediately fall in love with the I-205's straight-on approaches and exits relatively free from four-wheeled interference But enough talk let's go for a ride From Old Eve green Highway a short jaunt to Southeast 23rd Street At the end of the dud-end street a bike path snakes its way a bikeway a 25 feet below the roadway and Oh well beggere be choosers and all that Anyway coasting with ease down a gradual grade and Government Island in all its natural beauty is fut approaching What's this? No exit ramp onto the island? You mean there'll be no stopping to enjoy the beaches like the boaters do? No romps along the und? Rats I even packed a picnic lunch And what about all thou little lakes I've hard about or thou old homesteads that used to dot the island? I wanted to do some exploring but I'm not about to hop four lana of traffic and two 4 Vi -foot barriers with my bicycle to do it (The parts of the bike path on Government Island and the dike near Marine Drive still are not yet paved In fart bika may not be officially allowed on until May 1983 state highway engineers uy) A slight rise over from the other side of the island carries you over to the Oregon shore It also carries you over Marine Drive Back on terra firma the bike path makes a sharp left under the northbound lanes Here the path divides one path pointing back several hundred feet to Marine Drive the other beckoning you over the new Portland airport expressway That path leads down to a city street a block later it picks up again still parallel to I-205 Put a graveyard of rusting 100-gallon barrels from the Myers Drum Co and under a railroad bridge your journey is nearly complete Abruptly the traffic lights at the intersection of Columbia Boulevard and Killingworth Street tell you back in city traffic Construction is under way on an off-road path along 1-205 10 mila to Clackamu Town -Center Well our little journey is over It took all of 15 minutes to get from Washington to Oregon Jut gear down a few notches for the trip back home across the bridge If you still want to eat that picnic lunch Rocky Butte lookout or the Grotto is nearby Mount Tabor and Laurelhuret parks are a mile beyond Blue Lake Park is jut a mile farther down Marine Drive and from there a bike path takes you into Troutdale While truly a thing of beauty the 1-205 Bridge should not be a final destination for bicyclists but a means to a more enjoyable end the opening up of east Multnomah County to further sightseeing or commuting It is an important cog in the slowly developing bike system in the Vancouver-Portland area A river? Did someone uy there wu a river over the side? Oh yeah! Just above the railing I can see the 1-5 Bridge in the distance Thou white dots must be uilboats If only the engineers had suspended the.