Two highway projects’ construction costs have risen.
The Oregon Transportation Commission on Thursday authorized an $85.2 million increase for work on Interstate 205 and an approximately $15.4 million increase for work on Oregon Route 217 .
Construction of the I-205 Improvements Project (Abernethy Bridge) jumped to $600 million. The increase will be paid for with resources identified in the Urban Mobility Strategy Finance Plan update.
The project includes widening and seismically retrofitting the Abernethy Bridge, creating safer options to enter and exit the corridor with an auxiliary lane from Oregon Route 43 to Oregon Route 213, and combining the O.R. 43 ramps. Upon completion, the bridge will be the first seismically resilient one over the Willamette River in the Portland-metro region, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).
The as-built drawings from the original design and subsequent retrofits do not meet the bridge’s current condition, according to Brendan Finn, urban mobility and major projects director of ODOT. The cost increase will cover project changes such as additional steel reinforcement, additional structural steel fabrication and materials, and more. Unanticipated project changes include additional underground storage tanks, blast caps, sound wall panel changes, etc. Also, deep soil mixing (soil stabilization underneath columns) contributed to higher costs, he said.
The cost increase was estimated by an independent cost estimator, Finn said.
General contractor Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. of Vancouver, Washington, began construction in summer 2022. The project includes Abernethy Bridge improvements and adjacent highway construction, O.R. 43 roundabout construction and ramp improvements, O.R. 99E interchange improvements, stormwater treatment, retaining walls, signage, striping, and more. Locally funded water and sewer line improvements are also included.
Construction is expected to wrap up in 2026.
Construction of the O.R. 217: O.R. 10 O.R. 99W project rose to approximately $147.1 million. The increase will be paid for with approximately $3.5 million from state bridge program funding reserves, approximately $11.9 million from cancellation of the construction phase of the I-5: Capitol Highway O.R. 217 project and $2 million in the project’s bottom line via cancellation of the utility relocation phase in a previous Oregon Transportation Commission action.
The purpose of the project is to address bottlenecks on the highway from too many closely spaced interchanges. Upon completion, vehicle crashes in the corridor are expected to decrease by 30 percent, ODOT region 1 manager Rian Windsheimer said.
Crews have already built a new frontage road between Allen Road and Denney Road and constructed new sound walls. Currently, they’re constructing five miles of new auxiliary lanes (80 percent complete), widening the Hall Boulevard overpass in Beaverton for new sidewalks and bicycle lanes (expected to finish in summer) and replacing the Hall Boulevard overpass in Tigard (expected to finish in winter).
Project challenges that led to the cost increase include contractor staging, 13 bridge retrofits, public safety, and more. The contractor, Kerr Contractors , is working at multiple areas simultaneously and has required more inspectors than estimated, said Matt Freitag, regional 1 project delivery manager for ODOT.
The project team is also managing higher-than-anticipated levels of selenium and lead, which requires the soil to be hauled to either the I-5/I-205 disposal site or specialized facilities, ODOT shared.
“The discovery of old construction debris wood, metal, guardrail and asbestos varied near the Allen Boulevard interchange (and) resulted in an additional specialty disposal cost,” Freitag said.
During design, ODOT conducted a hazardous materials study in the corridor and found no indication of the debris, Freitag said. The only way it could be discovered was by excavation, he added.
This project has a five-year contract duration, which poses challenges such as long-term availability of subcontractors, contract labor and inflation cost increases, and fuel and asphalt escalation costs. In the case of this construction contract, fuel and asphalt prices have increased significantly, Freitag said. The increased construction cost considers those potential risks.
Construction began in early 2022. Kerr Contractors is planning to wrap up construction and finish repaving next summer. Full project completion is anticipated in October 2025.
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