What Does it Take to Get a Bridge Painted in This So-Called City of Bridges?

The Fremont Bridge has become a faded, flaking eyesore.

Traffic has been slowed to a crawl for months so the OK-looking Broadway Bridge can be repainted, while the Fremont Bridge is allowed to become a faded, flaking eyesore. What does it take to get a bridge painted in this so-called City of Bridges?

—Matt P.

Well, Matt, it's one thing to be the City of Bridges and quite another to be the City (or County, or State—or Nation, for that matter) of Limitless, Free-Flowing Transportation Funding.

We've pretty much decided, as a society, to pay only the absolute minimum necessary (sometimes even less!) to keep our stuff from completely falling apart. If the paint on the Fremont Bridge is doing its job of keeping the underlying steel from rusting, it's good paint, faded and flaking though it may be.

Most of Portland's bridges, including the Broadway, are maintained by Multnomah County. The Fremont, however, falls within the purview of the Oregon Department of Transportation, which has no plans to repaint it at this time.

Lest you think that the county has some anomalously large pot of money lying around for bridge beautification, you should know that, in a county study, the Broadway Bridge project tied for second-most urgent of 26 bridge projects, behind only the almost literally collapsing Sellwood Bridge. (The project also includes removing failed paint and repairing any steel that's corroded.)

Related: How Much Do You Really Know About Portland's Bridges?

The Ross Island Bridge, by the way, is also administered by the state, and it has plenty of rust (though the bridge's design keeps most of it hidden from the casual motorist). It will be painted this year, first with a pink primer that you're all going to freak out about, then with a blue-green top coat to match the current color.

The bottom line is that without a tax-independent revenue stream, it's tough to keep our infrastructure looking Williams-Sonoma fresh. If there were a toll on the Fremont Bridge, I guarantee you the structure would look like it just returned from three restful weeks in sunny Saint-Tropez. Failing that, you'll just have to suck it up.


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