Efforts advance to replace nearly 100-year-old Hood River-White Salmon bridge

While it’s not the I-5, there’s another bridge spanning the Columbia River that may be in even more need of replacement. Last month, the federal government announced it was awarding $200 million to help pay for the replacement of the Hood River-White Salmon bridge in the Columbia River Gorge. Marla Keethler is the mayor of White Salmon and a commissioner on the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority which was created last July to oversee the bridge replacement efforts. She described the nearly 100-year-old bridge as “a lifeline” to residents and the regional economy, with more than four million crossings made last year.

But the nearly mile-long bridge has been in need of replacing for decades, with speed reductions and weight limits imposed in recent years to extend its life and defer costly repairs to its metal deck. The estimate for replacing the bridge is estimated at $520 million which the HRWS Bridge Authority says will be paid for through federal and state grants and loans. Mayor Keethler joins us to talk about the status of these efforts to replace the Hood River-White Salmon bridge and the vision for a new one, along with Mike Fox, co-chair of the Hood River White Salmon Bridge Authority and secretary of the Hood River Port Commission.

This transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. The I-5 Bridge over the Columbia gets a lot of attention, but it is not the only bridge across the river that is in line for replacement. The Hood River White Salmon Interstate bridge is 100 years old this year. It is seismically deficient. It now has a speed limit of only 15 miles an hour to spare more of its remaining life. But a recent infusion of federal money, $200 million, could speed up the process to get a new bridge across the river. Marla Keethler is the mayor of White Salmon. She’s also a commissioner on the new Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority. She joins us now along with Mike Fox. He is the co-chair of this new authority and a member of the Hood River Port Commission. It’s great to have both of you on the show.

Marla Keethler: Likewise. Thanks for having us.

Mike Fox: Thank you.

Miller: Marla Keethler, first. How important is the Hood River-White Salmon bridge to residents who live on either side of it?

Keethler: Well, it’s critical and especially for those residents on the Washington side. Our smaller communities often rely on that bridge daily to access not just jobs, but childcare, medical services, groceries. The way that our communities here in the Gorge have built up we are really seeing the three, especially Bingen, White Salmon, and Hood River as one. That bridge is a regular passage point. We often refer to it as a lifeline.

Miller: Well, I mean, “lifeline” does remind me of the medical services you mentioned earlier. What are the implications of that?

Keethler: I am a White Salmon resident and I have two kids who were born in Oregon. And that’s every Washington family in our area. Our two public hospitals here in Klickitat County do not provide regular childbirth services. So that’s one example of a very common part of life, a life and family stage that, for our communities, we need the access over to the hospital in regular situations. But without a bridge in an emergency situation, it’s especially critical.

Miller: Have delays or closures of the bridge impacted you?

Keethler: Yes. Like I said, I live over on the Washington side. And like many of my constituents and all of our residents, when there is a closure, sometimes they’re planned, but that impact is felt by our businesses and those that work. 25-30% of the Klickitat County residents on this side commute into Oregon for their job.

So a bridge closure has significant impacts on our households and our businesses. And when it comes to emergency medical services, this bridge is the only crossing point for the Columbia River for a nearly 50-mile stretch. So a 10-minute access point over to Hood River quickly becomes an hour when that bridge is not accessible.

Miller: Mike Fox, my understanding is you’re a civil engineer, in addition to your other titles I mentioned earlier. Can you give us the big picture sense for the current state of this bridge?

Fox: Sure. As you said earlier, this bridge is 100 years old this year. It was designed and built back in the 1920s. It was originally designed to have cattle cross from one state to the other state and at the time, the model Ts and the light trucks. Over time, we changed the bridge a bit. We put in a lift span. But the bridge is very narrow. It has 9′4″ lanes to it. And we’re not talking 9′6″ lanes. They’re very narrow. If you drive across our bridge, you take a look at the guard rails and they’re all bent up because cars and trucks break off mirrors and so on going across the bridge itself.

You couldn’t build it this way today. It’s got a graded floor to the deck, which basically means anything that falls off a truck or a car drops through the structure right into the water. ODOT uses a sufficiency rating to judge the health of bridges. When it’s a brand-new bridge, the rating is 100. About two and a half years ago, the rating was 66. And ODOT inspects the bridge every two years. Very recently, about a year ago, it was dropped to 6. That’s six. So ODOT recognizes and we recognize that the bridge is at its end of life. And we can’t talk about a new bridge anymore. We gotta do it.

Miller: Can you explain the weight limit that was there and then went away and apparently, if I understand correctly, is back on. Who can’t ride on this bridge?

Fox: Yeah, the weight and speed hurt our bridge. So if you have a heavy truck going across the bridge at weight, it tends to bounce along on this graded deck. And it basically destroys welds and bad things [happen]. So a couple of years ago, the Port Commission decided to reduce the weight on the bridge for the heaviest of loads. So we reduced it down, I think it was 20 tons down. And then we lowered the speed limit to 15 [mph]. About a year or so ago, we did some engineering studies that said if we made these modifications, we could raise the weight limit back up.

We went ahead and spent the money and we got approval from ODOT to go ahead and raise the weight limit back up. But we saw recently, when we did some maintenance work on the bridge lifting cables, we noticed thousands of our deck welds were cracked. And that’s usually caused by excessive weight. So we decided to lower the weight limit back down again to try and protect our bridge and make it last until we can get the new bridge open.

Miller: Marla Keethler, what was your reaction to finding out that the federal government had approved $200 million as part of the total package for a bridge replacement?

Keethler: Well, if I was being honest, I think my real reaction, I probably couldn’t share on your show. But it was certainly elation. I mean, this has always been identified as a key part of the funding pie that we’ve been building out. And it’s really been envisioned that this project, if successful, has to be funded by both states, by the federal government, and also at the local level. So to be able to achieve this in our second pursuit of these funds, we’re in a critical point where there’s significant infrastructure funding that’s been allocated at the federal level for a finite amount of time, about a four year funding cycle. So to have this award in the second year of that cycle was huge for our communities. But also, for everyone that’s touched this project trying to move it forward over the last 30 years.

Miller: The total cost that I’ve seen for a replacement is $520 million. We’re talking about $200 million from the federal government. Where is the rest of the $320 going to come from?

Keethler: So it’s envisioned that we will have a contribution from each state, from Oregon and Washington, both hopefully awarding around $125 million to this project. And we’ve made progress there as well. Right now, we have $75 million committed from Washington and about $20 million from Oregon in their last session. So after those contributions are in place, that final full balance would be what we carry locally. And we’re looking to finance that through a federal loan program.

Miller: What kinds of conversations have you had with Oregon officials in recent years or recent months about this? It’s Oregon lawmakers who are, at this point, way behind their Olympia counterparts. What have you heard?

Fox: I’ll address that one since I’ve spent quite a bit of time down there, as has Marla. We’ve gotten good response from our local officials as well as the Joint Transportation Committee led by Rep. Susan McLain. We’ve had them out looking at our bridge. They understand the need that we have.

This last year, Rep. Helfrich was able to work through and get $20 million appropriated. But that will be in the 2025 session. There’s also an understanding, and I believe a commitment, that in the 2025 timeframe, they understand that they have a balance of about $105 million. Verbally, they support it. We just gotta see the money.

Miller: Let’s turn to this Authority. As I noted, it’s something that didn’t exist not too long ago. How has ownership and management of this bridge worked in the past? Mike Fox?

Fox: Yeah, in the past, the current bridge was owned by the Port of Hood River. And up until this last summer, it was expected that the new bridge would also be owned by the Port of Hood River. Well, there was legislation passed by both Oregon and Washington to establish a new Authority that will be responsible for the new bridge. That’s the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority. The Port is transferring responsibility of that over to the new Authority and, so far, working very well to do just that.

Miller: What’s going to be different? I mean, for just the average resident on either side of the bridge, why should it matter to them who owns and operates this bridge? I’m just wondering what’s going to be different?

Keethler:  I would say for Washington residents, a key part that makes this different, and why we pushed for the new legislation a few years back, was to have Washington representation. 70% of the trips across that bridge monthly are Washington residents. And as I mentioned earlier, many of the residents on our side are commuting over into Oregon for their jobs and livelihoods.

So we know that a point of contention, for a long time, has been the feeling like there wasn’t representation for informing the management and oversight of the bridge. And this new bi-state Bridge Authority does that. There is representation equally from Oregon and Washington communities that use that bridge. And going forward when this new bridge is operable and in place, that authority will be the one that sets the tolls and ensures that those tolls are only used for the ongoing maintenance and management of this bridge.

Miller: Speaking of tolls, Mayor Keethler, the tolls for this bridge went up not too long ago. They’re now, for a one-way trip, $3.50 if you pay cash, or half that if you use the transponder. But that’s each way, meaning it could cost somebody $7 in cash roundtrip. Why did tolls go up recently?

Keethler: So tolls, as I mentioned earlier, are kind of our pie for how we envision funding this project. A key component of that is still a local contribution. And the way that we can finance that loan is showing that we have the funding in place, as this new Authority, to pay back that eventual loan that will be needed. And so the increase in September was directly tied to this project.

100% of the additional funding now being realized through that increase is going into a set-aside for the new Authority to build up the anticipated reserves to finance between a $75 to $150 million loan. And that number will really be determined by how much we see contributed from both states. And now, obviously, having that $200 million kind of checks that off and meets the goal that we had set. But that toll increase is directly associated with this bridge project and those increased dollars are not going to anything other than this bridge project.

Miller: Do you have a sense for what the tolls will be for the new bridge and if they’ll need to go even higher?

Keethler: Well, there’s a lot of conversation, certainly locally, questions from residents. And when we were deliberating what this increase needed to be to meet that goal, this was a lot of the conversation there too. There are still toll studies that will be forthcoming to anticipate what eventual tolling will look like on this bridge. But the reason why it’s so significant, this recent federal award and this truly bi-state bipartisan effort and support for the new bridge, is realizing that the best way to keep these tolls as low as possible long-term, is to make sure that it’s a publicly funded infrastructure project.

So in the projections that we did, we are not anticipating that this is a toll that increases. That would take people by surprise when that bridge opens. We feel like the toll that we have right now is as conservative as it can be to meet the goals that we have, but also to get us to that finish line of people crossing that new bridge within the range of the toll that they’re paying now.

Miller: Mike Fox, what will this new bridge look like?

Fox: Yeah, it’s going to be a concrete segmental box bridge, so it won’t have a truss system like the current bridge does. But we’ll make it attractive. It’ll be nice and wide. Instead of 9′4″ lanes there will be 12′ lanes each way. There will be an 8′ buffer on either side of those two lanes. So if we have an accident, we have enough room to make a third lane, if you will, so we can keep traffic going on the bridge. There will be a 12′ lane dedicated to bicycles and pedestrians.

Miller: Set aside from vehicular traffic?

Fox: Yes. So there will be a barrier between the two. There will be two lookout bump-out points on that. So you can get out of the bicycle lane and sit and look over the scenery to the west of the bridge. We’ll collect all the storm water and so nothing’s going into the river that hasn’t been treated. So it’ll be a nice wide modern bridge, weight unrestricted. If you can drive it on I-84, you can drive it across the bridge. It’ll probably be a 45 miles an hour speed limit. And that limit is just set by the two ends of the bridge, as it connects to I-84 as well as Highway 14 on the Washington side.

Miller: As anybody who’s listened to this show for a decade may remember, a lot of the pushback against the I-5 bridge is from people who say that this is a highway expansion in the guise of a bridge replacement. If I’m understanding you correctly, the new bridge you’re envisioning there does not involve more lanes, simply wider lanes, in addition to, for the first time, a dedicated area for pedestrians and bicyclists. Will there be more lanes at all?

Fox: No. So the way it’s set up right now, there is a lane each way going across the bridge for autos and trucks. Again, there’s two 8′ buffers, side areas that we could use for creating a third lane if we have an accident. So it’d be nice and wide and it’s really designed for two lanes with the third lane as an emergency lane.

Miller: Marla Keethler, what is the timeline right now, the hopeful timeline?

Keethler: Well, the end of the timeline is that people are driving across this bridge, as Commissioner Fox likes to say, “at 10 a.m. on October 1, 2029.” And so we are really still on track with that schedule, which is that this bridge is opening to the public in 2029, that we are moving into noticeable activity, construction that people would be seeing by late 2025, and then there would be subsequent construction windows through those years to get to the 2029 date.

Miller: What aspect of this new bridge are you most excited about Marla Keethler?

Keethler: I think the bike-pedestrian access will be huge for our communities. And I think often those modes of transportation get assumed to be used only by recreational users or visitors. But I think, for many people in our communities, those will be viable options for some of the passaging that’s already happening on the bridge. But also, for many people who have been left behind because they don’t have access to vehicles.

And I think that having that additional way to get across will also make the north shore, our Washington communities, visited by more people who have discovered the Gorge in the National Scenic Area, but maybe not Bingen or White Salmon. So I think having that access and also the stability that a new bridge will bring for the next 100 years is critical.

Miller: Marla Keethler and Mike Fox, thanks very much.

Fox: Thank you.

Miller: Marla Keethler is the mayor of White Salmon. Mike Fox is the co-chair of the New Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority.

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