North Going Street Bridge provides the only public access to Swan Island, a key industrial area in North Portland.
Map by Portland Bureau of Transportation and Google Maps
The Portland Bureau of Transportation is working to restore full access to the North Going Street Bridge that was
earlier this month.
PBOT crews deemed the bridge safe enough to open a third travel lane on Sept. 15, allowing two lanes for westbound traffic to Swan Island and one lane back.
Only two travel lanes were opened originally after a train derailment damaged the bridge’s support beams.
PBOT officials said in a news release that a number of people who work on Swan Island have complained that having only one travel lane open coming out of the industrial area has caused traffic congestion in the evening.
Structural engineers are studying the feasibility of opening four traffic lanes — or of at least making one of the three currently open lanes reversible in order to accommodate more traffic coming from Swan Island after work hours.
“Creating a reversible lane is a challenging task,” PBOT said in the news release. “Changing the signage and barriers between lanes in a constrained environment on the bridge, with high-speed freight traffic, presents a safety challenge for our personnel and for the traveling public.”
“We are gathering information on what it would take to implement this as an interim measure and hope to have an update on that in the coming weeks.”
The bridge normally has three lanes running in each direction.
PBOT is also requesting emergency approval for a contract of up to $1 million with a contractor for bridge stabilization and repair work. Transportation Commissioner Chloe Eudaly has introduced that ordinance, which is on Portland City Council's agenda for its Wednesday meeting.