The Sellwood Bridge Community Advisory Committee will conduct a preliminary scoring of structure types being considered for the new bridge at a meeting on Monday, August 30 from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm at SMILE Station, 8210 SE 13th Avenue.  Meetings are open to the public and include time for public comment. 

Committee members will score each bridge type on aesthetic and user experience criteria.  Project architect Ricardo Rabines will lead the committee through a process that will rank each bridge type on how it responds to site conditions, its impact on the landscape and surroundings, and its use of materials and expression.  Aesthetics are just one of nine criteria categories the committee will consider before they recommend a structure type for the bridge this fall.  Other criteria categories include cost, construction time, constructability, impacts to social and natural environments, sustainability, seismic performance, and maintainability.   

The meeting agenda will include a report on the results of a public open house and online survey seeking public input on the bridge type recommendation.  The committee will also discuss scores for the technical criteria prepared by a technical working group.  

Structure type options for the new bridge include a steel or concrete box girder, steel plate girder, delta frame, deck tied arch or deck arch (in steel or concrete), extradosed, or through arch (in steel or a concrete/steel hybrid).  Descriptions and images of the bridge type options are featured on the project website at www.sellwoodbridge.org.  

The project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) recommended a preferred alternative that identified the location, cross section and interchange type for the replacement bridge.  Design decisions will not be made until the federal government approves the FEIS. A Record of Decision by the Federal Highway Administration is expected in September.  Final engineering design work should begin in late 2010, with construction likely to start in 2012, if funding is secured. 

The advisory committee includes local residents representing different project stakeholder groups.  Members represent associations for neighborhoods, businesses, bridge neighbors, transportation modes that use the bridge, river users, and design professionals.  

Multnomah County maintains the Sellwood Bridge and 300 miles of roads and bridges. 

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