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I-5 - Interstate Bridge (Northbound)

Multnomah County, Oregon, and Clark County, Washington
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Photos 

Overview

Photo taken 1993 by Jet Lowe for the Historic American Engineering Record

Video 

Interstate Bridge

Posted by Rovingrepairbot

Play video on YouTube

Map 

Street Views 

View Uglybridges.com report

Facts 

Overview
Vertical lift bridge over the Columbia River on northbound I-5 between Vancouver and Portland in Portland
Location
Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, and Clark County, Washington
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1917, Main span modification 1958
Builders
- American Bridge Co. of New York (Steel Fabricator)
- Pacific Bridge Co. of Portland, Oregon (Contractor)
- Porter Brothers Co. of Spokane, Washington (Contractor)
- Waddell & Harrington of Kansas City, Missouri (Design Engineer)
Design
Vertical lift Parker through truss
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 531.0 ft.
Total length: 3,538.2 ft. (0.7 mi.)
Deck width: 38.1 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 15.5 ft.
Recognition
Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
Approximate latitude, longitude
+45.61778, -122.67500   (decimal degrees)
45°37'04" N, 122°40'30" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
10/525338/5051632 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Portland
Inventory numbers
OR 01377A (Oregon Dept. of Transportation structure number)
BH 30106 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection (as of 07/2014)
Deck condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Appraisal: Functionally obsolete
Sufficiency rating: 18.5 (out of 100)
Average daily traffic (as of 2014)
128,400

Categories 

American Bridge Co. (1,116)
Built 1917 (575)
Built during 1910s (8,699)
Clark County, Washington (24)
Columbia River (35)
Former toll (23)
Functionally obsolete (7,922)
HAER documented (1,096)
Have street view (21,745)
Interstate 5 (37)
Movable (2,693)
Movable Bridges on the Interstate Highway System (8)
Multnomah County, Oregon (97)
NR-eligible (3,966)
Open (36,260)
Oregon (864)
 Owned by state (13,471)
Pacific Bridge Co. (20)
Parker through truss (1,154)
Parker truss (1,507)
Porter Brothers Co. (3)
Portland, Oregon (58)
Span length 500-1000 feet (378)
State line crossing (724)
Through truss (12,831)
Total length over 2500 feet (791)
Truss (29,327)
US 99 (70)
Vertical lift (410)
Waddell & Harrington (39)
Waddell Vertical Lift (28)
Washington (1,162)

Update Log 

  • October 16, 2014: New photos from Royce and Bobette Haley
  • October 4, 2014: New photo from Douglas Butler
  • July 10, 2014: New photo from Andrew Raker
  • May 30, 2013: New photos from M. D. Caillet
  • April 1, 2011: New video from Kim Harvey
  • September 8, 2010: New Street View added by Michael Goff
  • January 21, 2009: New photos from Michael Goff
  • January 7, 2009: New photo from Michael Goff
  • July 17, 2008: New photos from Michael Goff
  • July 8, 2008: Updated by Michael Goff
  • August 18, 2006: Posted HAER photos

Related Bridges 

Sources 

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Comments 

What of the missing segments of the 1917 bridge?
Posted August 11, 2017, by Sean Bates (seanbates [at] live [dot] com)

I was recently looking at a comparison of the NB bridge (1917) and the SB bridge (1958) before the NB had been reconfigured to match the SB bridge... and I noticed that 3 whole sections of the original NB bridge are missing!!

The new "humpback" section is new in 1958, but I count only 7 original sections after the tower-spans, where originally that count was 10. What happened to the other 3 segments? Scrapped? Repurposed elsewhere? Thanks!

here's the 1959 aerial for reference!

http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/v...

I-5 - Interstate Bridge
Posted April 6, 2011, by Michael Goff (michael [dot] goff [at] odot [dot] state [dot] or [dot] us)

The Interstate Bridge is operated and maintained by the Oregon Department of Transportation with half the funds for operation coming from Washington State Department of Transportation. If fact, one my uncles use to work on the ODOT maintenance and operation crew on the Interstate Bridge.

There has been a major study for the replacement of this bridge going on for numerous years, but no determination as to bridge type or a timeline has been made to date. I do believe the preferred alternative for the bridge is a deck truss structure, but that could have changed since I last checked out the project. Anyone interested can check out the progress of these studies and meetings by clicking on the link for the “Columbia River Crossing” at the bottom of the bridgehunter page.

At this point in time, I personally do not see this bridge getting replaced in the next 5 years. The feds, the two states, along with all of the local interests might get a project put together for construction around 10+ years out, but that is still optimistic after seeing how communication between all the interested parties has gone thus far.

I-5 - Interstate Bridge
Posted April 6, 2011, by Nathan Holth (form3 [at] historicbridges [dot] org)

This landmark bridge appears to be slated for demolition and replacement. Guess its more a Washington state bridge rather than an Oregon bridge. Washington State has been tearing out historic bridges like they are some form of weed taking over a garden. Anyway, I found an interesting 1917 discussion of this bridge with photos: http://books.google.com/books?id=NdENAAAAYAAJ&printsec=front...