5 ms·

I assume you're talking about the Sellwood bridge. If so, you're being disingenuous. The new bridge is more than twice as wide as the old one (64' vs. 28'). It'

I assume you're talking about the Sellwood bridge. If so, you're being disingenuous. The new bridge is more than twice as wide as the old one (64' vs. 28'). It's also an entirely different design (deck arch vs. truss). The work included moving the existing bridge, demolishing the existing bridge, earthquake resilience, and building a big new traffic interchange on the west side. The inflation-adjusted cost of the original bridge was $7.5 million. The final cost of the new bridge project was about $324 million. (2016 dollars) The new bridge project was 43x more expensive than the original bridge, but so much is different, I don't think you can draw any conclusions about changes in construction costs.

rootusrootus 8y ago
That is sort of my point, though. We raise the standards for everything we do, from safety during construction, to safety during use (bicycle lanes, wider pedestrian sidewalks, earthquake resistence, etc). This all bumps the price up, and significantly so. Whether that is good or bad is a separate issue, but it's definitely a major factor in why we don't do more big infrastructure projects now. Heck, I wonder if it would have been cheaper to build a more comparable direct replacement bridge for vehicle traffic, and then a completely separate walking/riding bridge. The new Sellwood bridge cost nearly three times what Tilikum Crossing did, and that has light rail and buses in addition to bikes & pedestrians.
- jdlshore 8y ago
  Personally, I'm all for improved safety standards. And I very much appreciate the wide pedestrian and bike lanes on the new Sellwood bridge. I used to bike across the Sellwood regularly and it was a nerve-wracking experience. It's interesting that the Sellwood bridge was so much more expensive than Tilikum (2.4x as much, not 3x, according to my quick search). I wonder why that was? I'm not a civil engineer, but if I were to guess, I would guess that it's a combination of the new Sellwood interchange and the need to deal with the existing bridge.

rootusrootus 8y ago

That is sort of my point, though. We raise the standards for everything we do, from safety during construction, to safety during use (bicycle lanes, wider pedestrian sidewalks, earthquake resistence, etc). This all bumps the price up, and significantly so. Whether that is good or bad is a separate issue, but it's definitely a major factor in why we don't do more big infrastructure projects now. Heck, I wonder if it would have been cheaper to build a more comparable direct replacement bridge for vehicle traffic, and then a completely separate walking/riding bridge. The new Sellwood bridge cost nearly three times what Tilikum Crossing did, and that has light rail and buses in addition to bikes & pedestrians.

jdlshore 8y ago
Personally, I'm all for improved safety standards. And I very much appreciate the wide pedestrian and bike lanes on the new Sellwood bridge. I used to bike across the Sellwood regularly and it was a nerve-wracking experience. It's interesting that the Sellwood bridge was so much more expensive than Tilikum (2.4x as much, not 3x, according to my quick search). I wonder why that was? I'm not a civil engineer, but if I were to guess, I would guess that it's a combination of the new Sellwood interchange and the need to deal with the existing bridge.