Inverted-Y design approved for Burnside Bridge replacement despite public opinion

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Despite popular opinion, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners unanimously agreed on Sept. 12 to replace Portland’s Burnside Bridge with an Inverted-Y, cable-stay design.

In July, more than 19,000 citizens responded to a survey issued by Multnomah County, which asked the public to choose between six proposed designs for the Burnside Bridge replacement project.

Roughly 55% of people who took the survey said they generally preferred a tied-arch-style bridge type to a cable-stay tower. However, when asked to vote on one of the specific bridge designs provided in the survey, the V-tower, cable-stay design received the most votes. Roughly 17.5% voted for the V-tower, 17% voted for a tied-arch, breached-basket-handle design, and 16.6% of people said they preferred an unbraced vertical-arch design.

However, the Community Design Advisory Group, a board of 20 local volunteers tasked with reviewing the bridge options and presenting commissioners with a final recommendation, decided not to choose between the public’s top three choices.

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Instead, the group recommended that commissioners approve the Inverted-Y design, which was favored by roughly 12% of the people who completed the survey.

Multnomah County Transportation Division Director Jon Henrichsen told Commissioners Thursday that the survey was one of many factors that the advisory group considered before making its final recommendation.

“The [Community Design Advisory Group] was not required to accept the public survey results,” Henrichsen said. “Instead, the survey was just one of the inputs that they were given to consider during their deliberations. Ultimately, the CDAG decided by a 14-2 vote … to recommend the inverted-Y cable-stay.”

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Julia Brim-Edwards surmised that the discrepancy between the advisory group and the public may be related to the type of information each group received. The advisory group, for example, considered the possibility of people climbing the bridge structures and the cost of graffiti removal, while the public was mostly given information on how the designs would impact the Portland skyline.

“The divergence between the Community Design Advisory Group and community feedback may also be because they had different sets of information,” Brim-Edwards said. “That doesn’t make either group’s decision wrong.”

Another public concern related to the bridge replacement project is that none of the proposed designs included a connection to the Eastbank Esplanade. However, Henrichsen said that the county recently formed a group focused on including an esplanade connection in the final project.

“None of the options preclude access to the eastside, and we’ve started a new meeting group with the city to explore how to make a connection to the Eastbank Esplanade,” Henrichsen said.

The approval of the Inverted-Y, cable-stay tower design is the latest decision in the county’s larger plan to replace the existing Burnside Bridge with one that can survive the next major Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. The only bridge currently thought capable of surviving a major Cascadia Subduction Zone quake is the Wapato Bridge, which connects the Portland area to Sauvie Island.

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