As the new northbound Willamette River Bridge rises from the ground, the columns on the south bank are most visible. When finished, seven of the nine either columns or sets of columns supporting this bridge will be located on the south bank of the river.
This is a stark contrast to the original bridge, which had many more of its columns, five to be exact, in the river instead of on land. The new bridge will touch down in the river only once.
The columns are not all the same. The pictures below show various configurations.
Above, workers prepare to pour the column south of the pedestrian path. It is wide, narrow, centered under the bridge deck and poured in two separate vertical sections.
Round rebar cages from this single column, centered under the bridge deck. Crews will pour the concrete walls as one section.
Shown in the two photos above is one of the three rectangular columns being built south of the railroad, in two stages of construction. The rebar on top will connect the column to the beam that will connect it with an adjacent column. The column south of these is a single column centered under the bridge.
An additional, larger column is located further south of these columns, just before the bridge joins Interstate 5 northbound.
