Oregon City Arch Bridge Rehabilitation

The Oregon City Arch Bridge is a historic bridge that connects Oregon City and West Linn across the Willamette River. Designed by famed Oregon engineer Conde B. McCullough, and built in 1922, it serves as a vital transportation route for Highway 43. Though the 755-foot-long bridge appears to be a concrete structure, it is actually made of structural steel covered with shotcrete (cast-in-place concrete) and other coatings.

Over the years, leaking expansion joints caused deterioration of the steel elements, and general weathering of the concrete portions of the bridge left protective coatings in poor condition. DOWL completed an extensive structural rehabilitation for the bridge that involved removing and replacing all deteriorated or damaged steel and concrete as well as seismic retrofit measures to increase the historic bridge’s resiliency in the event of an earthquake.