Huge turnout in support of hearing the funding bills for the Earthquake Ready Burnside Bridge project

In its efforts to prepare the area for the Cascadia earthquake, the Earthquake Ready Burnside Bridge project team in Multnomah County has submitted two bills to the Joint Committee on Transportation intended to significantly fund one of Oregon’s largest earthquake-resistance projects.

“We are determined to start designing relatively soon, and we are here before you today because we need funding to finish this project,” Taylor Stenblock, the Multnomah County Coordinator of Regional Affairs and Government Relations, said in testimony at a state legislative hearing. Capitol Thursday, March 23. “We are seeking every federal grant that we may be eligible for and hope that we will be able to get some state funding as well as other creative ways to fund the project.”

HB 3323 will allocate $300 million from the Oregon Administrative Services Department’s state general fund for distribution to the EQRB project. This would double the current funding for the project. The county has already committed to funding a third of the $895 million project, through vehicle registration fees.

HB 3301 will authorize Multnomah County to form a master plan and service area with respect to bridges that span the Willamette River.

“What this will do is allow us to create an area similar to a lighting area or a road area, and it will also allow us to charge fees that we can use to generate a small amount of revenue and increase our interconnection capacity for projects like that,” Steenblock said.

Amendments are coming soon that may change the fee structure for this law, Stenblock said. But in general, she said, this would be an annual fee per household between $1 and $5 for those who live in Multnomah County.

Representative Dacia Graeber, D-District 28, sponsors Bill 3301.

“We know that for every dollar spent before a disaster, we save $6 after disaster and even more importantly, potentially countless lives,” said Rep. Graeber.

Currently, there will be no immediately usable bridges in downtown Portland after a major earthquake. Multnomah County is leading an effort to replace the existing Burnside Bridge with one that can withstand the Cascadia Subduction Earthquake.

Project manager Megan Neal spoke about why Burnside Bridge is the best option for this type of project.

“The Burnside Trail itself is probably the most resilient of all of these trails,” Neill said, “It has relatively few bridges and structures along the trail that could collapse making it unusable after a major earthquake.” “And again, it connects our region together all the way from Washington County in the west to Gresham in the east, so by replacing the Burnside Bridge, we can really go a long way to making this whole corridor a dependable and reliable road for our community to use after a major earthquake.” .

He introduced Neil and Steenblock with Department of Transportation Director and District Engineer John Henriksen.

“After the initial emergency response, this bridge will be a key conduit to facilitate local and regional rebuilding and recovery as critical streets, bridges, buildings and facilities are repaired over the long term,” Henrichsen said.

Henrichsen said the bridge will be built to meet the transportation, freight and multimedia needs of the metro area now and at least 100 years into the future.

After the presentation, Neil, Steenblock, and Henrichsen answered questions from the panel about the overall costs and strategy for obtaining funding for the project.

“If we had a huge transportation infrastructure bill that partnered with the state of Washington, and we required a large infusion of federal capital, I suppose you would be happy if we included you and the I-5 bridge, and whatever other bridges we need,” said R-District 21 Rep. Kevin Mannix: “Would this be an attractive option if we could put something together?”

“I think we’re happy to be part of any collaborative conversation that might happen on infrastructure and I hope the committee can see today that we’ve worked hard to incorporate community feedback and I think the need for our bridge is great and we’d love to be part of that conversation,” Stenblock said.

Many community leaders and citizens gave enthusiastic public testimonies in support of the project. Multnomah County Sheriff Jessica Vega Pedersen spoke about the urgent need for an earthquake-resistant bridge.

“When the Big One hits, thousands of our fellow Oregonians will die. In my community in Multnomah County, families who live on the east side of Willamette but work downtown will be left stranded and unable to get to their homes and children,” said Chief Vega Pederson. Children in daycare or school will not be able to reach their parents and loved ones. The electrical network will fail. Thousands of buildings that fall short of modern seismic resilience will collapse.”

Moderator Vega Pedersen touched on the immediate effects and how a major earthquake will affect the region in the long term.

“The economic damage to our region will also be catastrophic, with at least $32 billion in losses projected over a significant period of days, weeks, months and years,” said moderator Vega Pedersen.

Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal spoke about the benefits of the new bridge beyond its seismic resilience.

“While seismic resilience is our North Star, we have also included many other community requests such as a crash barrier between traffic lanes and a mixed-use trail,” said Commissioner Jayapal. “The multi-use lane of the bridge will be at least as wide as the existing lane on the Telecom Bridge, wider than any Willamette River bridge currently in use, and possibly even wider. The lane configuration will include a bus-only lane on the east side of the bridge to encourage transit passenger traffic.”

Commissioner Jayapal also promoted a focus on sustainability for the new bridge.

“The new bridge will capture all stormwater from the bridge deck, treat it to meet the stringent City of Portland and Oregon standards, transport it to an upgraded stormwater treatment facility, and improve the water quality of the Willamette River,” Commissioner Jayapal said. .

The project aims to obtain a gold certification in the Greenroads sustainability system during the design and construction phases of the bridge.

Chris Voss, Director of Emergency Management for Multnomah County, also testified, sharing a grim picture of what our region will face in the aftermath of a major earthquake.

“We expect to see over 15,000 injuries and obviously a lot of buildings we expect to collapse. So the movement of these emergency responders east and west is definitely a critical thing for us,” said Voss.

The western side presents some major challenges, Voss said.

“What you have on the west side is a very high population density, you have a very high density of unreinforced construction, I think 264 buildings last I saw, and then you also have on the north of that ITC (critical energy infrastructure) with 350 million gallons of material And we know based on those reports that you’re likely to see somewhere between 94 and 195 million gallons of that material.”

Portland Fire and Rescue Cpt. Louisa Jones also witnessed, sharing the urgency of building the bridge.

“Generators will be the only power source that will power critical emergency resources including emergency radio and cell towers,” Cpt. Jones said. With at least one bridge in place, fuel convoys from the east will be able to move west to resupply these generators and all rescue and response vehicles in the area. The impact of having at least one bridge cannot be overstated. It will save lives, improve rescue efforts, and put the entire country on a vastly improved path to recovery.”

Among the many others who witnessed their support were concerned community members, contractors, labor union representatives, the director of the Portland Saturday Market, and historians. More than 20 people signed up to give public testimony. Meeting time ran out and those who signed up for a virtual certification were asked to provide written statements.

You can view the recording of the session here.

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