FILE: Traffic is shown crossing the nearly mile-long Hood River Bridge that extends over the Columbia River to connect Hood River in Oregon and White Salmon in Washington.
Courtesy Patty Rosas/Port of Hood River
The Hood River-White Salmon Interstate Bridge will be closed at times again, starting Monday.
After a semi-truck crashed into the bridge’s lift span last month, the bridge was immediately shut down for inspections.
Engineers finished three days later, and authorized the bridge to reopen to passenger vehicles. But parts of the bridge above the traffic lanes still need repair.
After many discussions surrounding another closure, the Port of Hood River announced the bridge would be closed from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day, from Monday until July 21. In compliance with the engineers’ recommendations, semi-trucks and larger vehicle access will be restricted.
“We wanted to keep the bridge open as much as we could for vehicle traffic during the day so people can get to work, do their errands, and then get home afterward,” said Mike Fox, a Port of Hood River commissioner.
For daily commuters, the schedule is more convenient, but for the hospitality industry, the timing of the closure “is cutting off a lot of the traffic that we would see coming across the bridge in what is really our peak summer season,” White Salmon Mayor Marla Keethler said.
This provided photo shows damage to lateral bracings on the lift span of the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge, caused by a truck hauling an excavator that was crossing the bridge on June 27, 2024, traveling south from White Salmon to Hood River.
Courtesy of the Port of Hood River
Keethler and other White Salmon, Washington, officials have been advocating for the replacement of the bridge for years. She’s heard from city residents that only use the bridge out of necessity. The 100-year-old bridge’s narrow lanes and low weight tolerance can make Gorge residents hesitant to cross it.
The recent crash only raised those concerns.
For Fox, who is also a co-chair for the Hood River Bridge Authority, the crash may bring awareness to the urgent need for a bridge replacement. “We certainly hope this shows the various governments that we’re involved with that this bridge needs to be replaced,” he said.
The cost estimate to replace the bridge is $520 million, and the authority has raised 56% of that from federal grants and state funding.
Keethler said the urgency to replace the bridge comes from not wanting a crash like this to happen again. No one was injured this time, but it could’ve easily been worse.
“(The bridge) is at its past due date, and stuff like this will continue,” Fox said. “We can’t talk about building a new bridge, we have to get a new bridge built.”