What’s with the equipment on I-5 — near the bridge, and ramps farther away — that look like drilling rigs. I assume they are part of the new bridge project, but for what?
— Martin Siegler, Sherwood Hills neighborhood
You assume right, Martin. Those rigs are digging deeply into the all-important soil that this gargantuan construction project will stand upon.
“The project is conducting geotechnical surveys at locations along the I-5 corridor, focusing on areas within the highway right of way,” said Mandy Putney, communications manager for the Columbia River Crossing.
“Crews are collecting information about soil structure and stability. Information provided by the surveys will be used in the next steps of the design process. Surveying began along I-5 in Washington in the fall of 2009. Currently, crews are doing surveying along I-5 in Oregon and Washington, and are expected to finish by the end of May this year.”
Putney directs the curious to the website http://www.columbiarivercrossing.org/ for detailed information. But because no bridge design has been settled upon, there’s nothing like a rough guesstimate yet as to how many gazillions of tons that underlying soil might ultimately bear.
Explore the site a bit and you learn that these soil probes are just one of several types of advance work that’s already been done for the new bridge. In February, the Columbia River Crossing researched “in-water pile installation and noise-reduction techniques.” That meant driving six circular steel columns into the river bottom at locations just west of the current bridge to study different construction techniques and how the related noise affects nearby human life, as well as fish and wildlife. There’s also a riverbed sediment collection and analysis under way.
If you want to know more, call the project office at 877-567-2033.
Got a question about your neighborhood? We’ll get it answered. Send “What’s Up With That?” questions to neighbors@columbian.com.
