Traffic Disruption Awaits This Weekend as I-84 Will Close for Bridge Installation

A construction crew will place a 400-foot, 450,000-pound span over the freeway.

Providence Portland Medical Center and Interstate 84. (Henry Cromett)
By Nigel Jaquiss

For decades, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) has urged Oregonians to use alternative forms of transportation—transit, bikes and their feet.

This weekend, Blumenauer will both get his wish and the kind of legacy piece of permanent infrastructure that befits four decades in elected office. A construction crew will install the main span of the new Congressman Earl Blumenauer Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge across Interstate 84 at Northeast 7th Avenue.

Rolling the 400-foot, 450,000-pound bridge into place will require the closure of I-84 from 10 pm Friday, Oct. 8, until 5 am Monday, Oct. 11. The freeway will close westbound at the I-205 interchange and eastbound from the I-5 interchange to César E. Chávez Boulevard.

The new bridge will link the Lloyd District to the Central Eastside with a 10-foot-wide pedestrian path and a 14-foot-wide bike path that is part of what the Portland Bureau of Transportation calls the Green Loop.

PBOT says the construction cost of the bridge is $13.7 million, which will come from urban renewal dollars and system development charges from new construction.

To watch the installation remotely, click here.


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