Reconstructing Burnside Bridge to be Earthquake Ready

Portlanders will lose use of one of their eight downtown bridges for an extended time, as early as 2027, for the complete reconstruction of the Burnside Bridge.

Currently, all of the downtown Willamette River vehicular bridges (excepting the transit-specific Tillikum Bridge) are at risk of being rendered unusable in the event of a major earthquake. So, Multnomah County has decided to fix this problem.

The Earthquake Ready Burnside Bridge project aims to, as its name suggests, make the Burnside “earthquake ready” by rebuilding it.

The 97-year-old bridge will be closed during the rebuild, causing some major traffic changes.

“We expect that it will be fully closed for five years,” said Emily Miletich, engineering services manager at Multnomah County, which owns most Portland bridges. Keeping the bridge closed is expected to reduce construction time by two years and save $90 million.

The reconstruction has an upper-limit cost of $895 million, of which approximately $325 million has already been committed.

This project is still in the early stages of its design phase, so many characteristics of the bridge are yet to be determined. The project team intends to engage the public and get more input to flesh out the bridge’s type/form and aesthetics.