For the opening of our story here on The Cascadia Advocate about the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last week, I suggested that readers contemplate what would happen if there were a similar disaster on the maritime border between Washington and Oregon, writing: “Imagine if one of the vitally important bridges linking Washington and Oregon was hit by a big cargo ship and fell into the Columbia River. That is what happened last night in Baltimore, where a disabled ship slammed into the support structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing a total collapse of its main section and blocking marine traffic to and from the Port of Baltimore.”
Today, in a story for The New York Times, reporters Mike Baker, Anjali Singhvi, Helmuth Rosales, David W. Chen and Elena Shao took a look at a dozen bridges around the country that infrastructure experts believe are just as vulnerable to ship strike as the Francis Scott Key Bridge was when the giant container ship Dali hit it.
The Lewis and Clark Bridge has towered above the Columbia River for nearly a century, its rugged half-mile truss serving as a gateway for logging trucks and beach vacationers crossing between Washington and Oregon.
Decades ago, to protect against wayward vessels that could threaten the structure, crews installed timber shields around the bridge piers that rise up out of the water. But even as the cargo ships chugging up the Pacific Northwest’s largest river began to grow in size, the timbers rotted away, leaving the bridge vulnerable to disaster.
“If a ship hits one of those piers, it’s gone,” said Jerry Reagor, a semiretired contractor who lives near the bridge and has spent years pressing transportation officials to install new protections. The state views the risk of calamity as low and the cost of preventing it to be high.
Bridges across the country carry similar deficiencies. At 309 major bridges on navigable waterways in the United States, inspections in recent years have found protection systems around bridge foundations that were deteriorating, potentially outdated or nonexistent, leaving the structures perilously exposed to ship strikes.
Constructed in the 1920s, the Lewis and Clark Bridge was once privately owned. It links Longview in Cowlitz County, Washington with Rainier, Oregon. (On clear days, Rainier has a view of Mount Rainier in Washington; hence the name.)
It is a cantilever bridge, designed by Joseph Strauss, who is better known for having been the chief engineer of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, which is possibly the most famous bridge in the world. It is 830 meters long (2,722 feet) and has 64 meters (210 feet) of vertical clearance. It was built by J. H. Pomeroy & Co. and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982.
The bridge came into public ownership in 1947, when the State of Washington bought it. Tolls were eliminated in 1965 after the cost of constructing the bridge, $5.8 million, had been recouped. Tolls were initially a dollar for automobiles and ten cents for pedestrians, equivalent to around $14.52 and $1.45 in 2023 dollars.
Twenty years ago, the bridge deck was replaced at a cost of $29.2 million, a little less than half of what it cost to build the bridge in 2003 dollars. (The original construction cost, $5.8 million, works out to $62.18 million in 2003 dollars, and over $84 million in 2023 dollars.) However, the State of Washington has yet to install new shields to protect the bridge piers, as noted above in the lede to the NYT story.
The Lewis and Clark Bridge isn’t the only aging bridge straddling the Columbia River. Downstream, near the river mouth, there is the Astoria–Megler Bridge, which opened in 1966, and upstream, there is Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 9.6, which opened all the way back in 1908. Then there is the better-known pair of Interstate Bridges, carrying I‑5, which were built in 1917 and 1958. All lack sufficient shielding to protect against threats posed from big ships like the Dali.
WSDOT would need a significant amount of money to put up shields on the Lewis & Clark Bridge, the agency told the NYT:
Department of Transportation officials in Washington State have said they will be watching the Baltimore investigation to determine whether new pier protections on the Lewis and Clark Bridge might be needed but cautioned that the state has limited funds.
“This would be an improvement project that would cost tens of millions of dollars,” said Kelly Hanahan, a department spokeswoman.
The Astoria-Megler Bridge downstream has shields, and they are in working order, but they are not big or sturdy enough to protect the bridge from something as big as the Dali. The NYT chose to close the story by discussing the Astoria-Megler Bridge:
Back in the Pacific Northwest, farther down the Columbia River, the Astoria-Megler Bridge has shields in place to deflect ships away from the piers, and inspectors have found them to be functioning. But vessel sizes have increased in recent years, state officials acknowledged.
Capt. Jeremy Nielsen, president of the Columbia River Pilots, whose mariners are hired to guide ships through the sometimes treacherous waters of the lower Columbia and Willamette Rivers, said he has concern over both bridges, given that ships can and do break down on the river.
The shields on the Astoria-Megler Bridge are capable of deflecting smaller ships navigating the river, he said. “The structure that’s there is not going to protect against a larger vessel.”
How much will it cost to provide sufficient protection to all the vulnerable bridges in the Pacific Northwest? Probably hundreds of millions of dollars. But, as the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
If we lose one of our key bridges, the costs could rise into the billions, as they’re expected to in Baltimore. The federal government and the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho need to work together to figure out how to pay for and construct the shielding that is needed to safeguard our vital crossings.
