Salem's Center Street Bridge inspected after boat hits pier

Apr 28, 2024

The Oregon Department of Transportation has a dive team responsible for more than 1,100 bridges and culverts across Oregon.

Routine and regular inspections take up most of its time, although it does get pulled away for emergency inspections, like last month when the Willamette Queen got into a slow-speed collision with the Center Street Bridge.

A man untied the 87-foot-long sternwheeler from the Riverfront Park dock in the early morning of Aug. 14, and it struck one of the bridge's piers. The incident triggered a Level 2 inspection by ODOT’s Underwater Inspection Team, which arrived within hours to determine whether the heavily used bridge was safe for vehicles.

Michael Goff, ODOT's senior bridge and tunnel inspector and a member of the dive team, said the agency has three bridge inspection levels of response based on the severity of an event.

Level 1 inspections happen at the maintenance level, with ODOT making an initial assessment.

In the case of the Willamette Queen incident, Goff said the District 3 bridge maintenance supervisor responded but could not fully evaluate any impact damage below the water.

Level 2 inspections, made at the request of the bridge owner, are performed by certified bridge inspectors or licensed engineers. The Center Street Bridge is one of two state highway bridges spanning the Willamette River in Salem. It carries eastbound traffic from West Salem and Highway 22 into downtown.

The state dispatched the Underwater Inspection Team to perform an emergency Level 2 inspection of the pier the boat hit, one of the bridge's three main piers in the river channel.

The Center Street Bridge is 2,218 feet long and has 25 concrete piers that support steel deck girders, including an abutment at each end.

The Willamette Queen floated north upriver when it was untied and nestled against the pier. The slow current prevented the boat from being slammed into it. Rescue Boat 5 of Salem Fire Department's towed the sternwheeler back to the dock. Salem Police arrested the man who allegedly untied it.

Within hours, the dive team arrived to inspect the pier. Approaching by boat, it found barely visible reddish-colored paint scuffs. The Willamette Queen is painted white with red trim.

Goff did the underwater inspection. He said the dive took just 10-15 minutes. He found no structural damage, only an area where a bit of algae had been scraped off.

"The bridge sustained zero damage," he said.

No further action was required this time. But if needed, Goff said, a Level 3 inspection could have been performed by an engineering expert for a specific bridge type, material or defect. The expert would then make recommendations for bridge closure or repair.

The bridge coincidentally was due to be inspected the week after the incident. Due to time constraints, the team investigated the "damage" the day of the incident and then returned the following week to complete the full underwater inspection of both the Center and Marion Street bridges, which are done every two years.

ODOT's Underwater Inspection Team, known simply as the dive team within the agency, has nine members.

Rick Shorb, the team leader, and Jason Ottosen, the underwater sounding coordinator, are full-time members. The other seven, including Goff, are part-time divers and full-time ODOT employees who do other jobs.

Some of the state's first official underwater bridge inspections took place in the 1960s, during construction of the Astoria-Megler Bridge and following the 1964 floods. The state initiated its Bridge Inspection Program in 1971 to comply with new federal standards.

The dive team performs scheduled inspections all year, although much of its work is seasonal. The summer and fall are busy times.

"As winter comes and conditions worsen, we scale it down and don't dive as much," Goff said, noting poor weather, high water levels, swift water and low visibility are conditions that can impede inspections.

The team inspects both state and local agency bridges. Oregon currently has 7,022 bridges that qualify for the National Bridge Inventory, a database compiled by the Federal Highway Administration and including any bridge at least 20-feet long and used for vehicular traffic.

Marion County has 355 bridges in the inventory. Polk County has 159.

But only 1,114 bridges and culverts fall under the dive team's responsibility and are inspected on a varying cycle between one and five years, depending on the condition of the bridge foundations and their susceptibility to erosion.

Goff said the bridges that don't qualify either span a waterway without piers in the water, have waterways shallow enough to wade into, or are over dry land or roadways.

Center Street Bridge, which carries 45,000 to 50,000 vehicles a day, is the fourth bridge at this location. Salem's first bridge lasted only four years, built in 1886 and washed out by floodwaters. A replacement was used for nearly three decades until being condemned by the highway department in 1918.

The third Center Street Bridge opened that same year and carried two-way traffic until the westbound Marion Street Bridge opened in the 1950s. The Center Street Bridge was at that time designated for eastbound traffic.

The current Center Street Bridge with four lanes was constructed in the 1980s and is in line for seismic retrofit improvements scheduled to begin in 2025, according to an ODOT project report.

Capi Lynn is a senior reporter for the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions and tips to her at [email protected] or 503-399-6710.