Van Buren Street Bridge
Encyclopedia
The Van Buren Street Bridge is a swing span, steel motor vehicle bridge spanning the Willamette River
Willamette River
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States...

 at Corvallis
Corvallis, Oregon
Corvallis is a city located in central western Oregon, United States. It is the county seat of Benton County and the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 54,462....

 in the U.S. state of Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

. Opened in 1913, the black colored bridge was the first bridge across the river at Corvallis and is now the third oldest bridge across the river. Owned by the state and maintained by the Oregon Department of Transportation
Oregon Department of Transportation
The Oregon Department of Transportation is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Department which, along with the Oregon State Highway...

 (ODOT), the 708 feet (215.8 m) long span is of a through truss design and carries one lane of traffic of Oregon Route 34 eastbound from Corvallis into neighboring Linn County
Linn County, Oregon
Linn County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is named in honor of Lewis F. Linn, a U.S. Senator from Missouri who advocated the American occupation of the Oregon Country. By the 2010 US census the population of Linn county was 116,672 showing a 13.2% growth since the 2000 census...

. The bridge no longer is able to swing open, and the state plans to replace the bridge as early as 2013.

History

About 1860 a ferry started crossing the Willamette River at Corvallis. Benton County legislators were able to secure approval to build a bridge at the site as early as 1889. Meanwhile, the county bought the ferry in 1902 and removed the crossing fee. Plans for the bridge across the river were created by Benton County in 1910, and in February 1911 the Oregon Legislature
Oregon Legislative Assembly
The Oregon Legislative Assembly is the state legislature for the U.S. state of Oregon. The Legislative Assembly is bicameral, consisting of an upper and lower house: the Senate, whose 30 members are elected to serve four-year terms; and the House of Representatives, with 60 members elected to...

 passed a bill that approved the plan to build the bridge. The county signed a contract with the Coast Bridge Company for the steel for a bridge in January 1912.

Work began about June 1912 after a legal delay over funding was resolved, with Corvallis agreeing to pay a larger portion of the project. In November 1912, Corvallis residents passed a bond measure to allow for the city’s portion of funding of the bridge. This vote was the first time women were allowed to vote in a Corvallis election. Construction was completed by the Coast Bridge Company on the project that would cost $70,000 to build. Andrew J. Porter was the designer of the span. Funds came from the city, Linn County, private donations, and the largest portion from Benton County. The span was completed in February 1913, with a dedication ceremony on March 11 attended by the mayors of Corvallis and Philomath, as well as the judges for Linn and Benton counties. Built as a vehicle crossing, the Oregon Electric Railway
Oregon Electric Railway
The Oregon Electric Railway was an interurban railroad line in the U.S. state of Oregon that linked Portland to Eugene. Service from Portland to Salem, Oregon, began in 1907. The Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway purchased the system in 1910, and extended service to Eugene in 1912...

 had tracks leading to the east side of the bridge shortly after the bridge opened.

The road across the span was originally two-way, plus there was a sidewalk along the south side. On January 25, 1914, the span unexpectedly opened during a windstorm, and trapped a young man on the open swing span section until the bridge operators could row out to the center span and use the turn-key
Chuck (engineering)
A chuck is a specialized type of clamp used to hold an object, usually an object with radial symmetry, especially a cylindrical object. It is most commonly used to hold a rotating tool or a rotating workpiece...

 to put the span back into proper position. The state took over ownership of the span in 1938. In June 1952, the span was opened for the first time in 25 years to allow an Army Corp of Engineers vessel to pass, and the span opened for the final time in October 1960. In the 1980s the swivel became inoperable. The bridge was nominated for listing on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 about 2006. In March 2007, planned maintenance and re-painting began on the bridge, closing the bridge to traffic at times. The $2.5 million project was completed in October 2007.

Replacement plans

In the 1990s the Oregon Department of Transportation
Oregon Department of Transportation
The Oregon Department of Transportation is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Department which, along with the Oregon State Highway...

 proposed options for replacing the bridge in order to alleviate traffic problems
Traffic congestion
Traffic congestion is a condition on road networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. The most common example is the physical use of roads by vehicles. When traffic demand is great enough that the interaction...

 in downtown Corvallis. Funding was never secured and the project was dropped in 1993, but the plans were revived in 2004. Plans included options to move the existing structure to a park, leave it in place, and build a new span that could be located in a variety of locations along the river in downtown. These options were narrowed to two in 2006, one adding a bridge parallel to the existing bridge and the other building a curved bridge between the old span and the Harrison Street Bridge. The existing structure would remain in-place under both options, and construction would not begin until 2012 at the earliest with costs estimated at around $18 million.

After a new bridge is built, the state originally said they would no longer own and maintain the old bridge, which was proposed to be used for pedestrian
Pedestrian
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In some communities, those traveling using roller skates or skateboards are also considered to be pedestrians. In modern times, the term mostly refers to someone walking on a road or footpath, but this was not the case...

s and bicycles. Linn County’s Board of Commissioners supported tearing down the old bridge and simply replace it with a new wider span. In June 2006, ODOT decided to keep the existing span in addition to the new bridge. Additional studies began in 2007 to determine which of the options for replacement would work best for fixing traffic issues across the river. Options now included adding a bypass north to connect with Oregon Route 99W. By May 2009, ODOT had two proposals, one of which would not build a new bridge near the existing span. Both options included adding a northern bypass
Bypass (road)
A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....

 that would connect to U.S. Route 20
U.S. Route 20
U.S. Route 20 is an east–west United States highway. As the "0" in its route number implies, US 20 is a coast-to-coast route. Spanning , it is the longest road in the United States, and the route sparsely parallels Interstate 90...

 and Oregon 99W, meanwhile the start date would now be as early as 2013 for any construction on the entire project.

Details

The bridge was the first bridge across the Willamette River
Willamette River
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States...

 at Corvallis. Carrying one-lane of traffic eastbound, it connects Benton County on the west to Linn County on the east side of the Willamette. It carries Oregon Route 34 out of downtown Corvallis, with the Harrison Street Bridge to the north carrying OR 34 into downtown. The single lane creates traffic problems at the evening rush hour
Rush hour
A rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice a day—once in the morning and once in the evening, the times during when the most people commute...

 with three lanes of the highway narrowing to one lane to cross the bridge.

A swing bridge
Swing bridge
A swing bridge is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its centre of gravity, about which the turning span can then pivot horizontally as shown in the animated illustration to the right...

, its main 249 feet (75.9 m)-span could swivel on its axis
Rotation
A rotation is a circular movement of an object around a center of rotation. A three-dimensional object rotates always around an imaginary line called a rotation axis. If the axis is within the body, and passes through its center of mass the body is said to rotate upon itself, or spin. A rotation...

 and open to allow river traffic to pass. This is accomplished by using a turn key
Chuck (engineering)
A chuck is a specialized type of clamp used to hold an object, usually an object with radial symmetry, especially a cylindrical object. It is most commonly used to hold a rotating tool or a rotating workpiece...

 placed into the turning bolt and rotating the bolt. Six people would rotate the key using a 17 feet (5.2 m) long wood rod that combined resemble a corkscrew
Corkscrew
A corkscrew is a kitchen tool for drawing stopping corks from wine bottles. Generally, a corkscrew consists of a pointed metallic helix attached to a handle. The user grips the handle and screws the metal point into the cork, until the helix is firmly embedded, then a vertical pull on the...

. This would turn the 24 feet (7.3 m) wide gear that had 300 teeth along its circumference and the span would spin along 42 rollers constructed of steel. The operators could use two gears, one opened the span in 150 revolutions, while the other completed the job in 50 revolutions. When opened it provided 102 feet (31.1 m) of clearance on either side of the bridge.

Van Buren Street Bridge is the last movable-span truss bridge
Truss bridge
A truss bridge is a bridge composed of connected elements which may be stressed from tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads. Truss bridges are one of the oldest types of modern bridges...

 constructed by the pin connection method located on the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...

. Pins were used to connect the trusses, but the technique was abandoned after rivet
Rivet
A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the buck-tail. On installation the rivet is placed in a punched or pre-drilled hole, and the tail is upset, or bucked A rivet...

s came into usage. The bridge is also one of only two swing style bridges left in Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 used for vehicle traffic, and is the third oldest bridge across the Willamette after the Steel
Steel Bridge
The Steel Bridge is a through truss, double lift bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States. Its lower deck carries railroad and bicycle/pedestrian traffic, while the upper deck carries road traffic and light rail , making the bridge one of the most multimodal in the world...

 and Hawthorne
Hawthorne Bridge
The Hawthorne Bridge is a truss bridge with a vertical lift that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, joining Hawthorne Boulevard and Madison Street. It is the oldest vertical-lift bridge in operation in the United States and the oldest highway bridge in Portland...

 bridges in Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

.

Overall, the bridge is 708 feet (215.8 m) long and is composed of three separate steel spans that rest on concrete piers. The swing span is a Pratt through truss, and the next longest part a 171 feet (52.1 m) long Parker through truss span on the western end. The eastern approach is a Warren pony truss that measures 57 feet (17.4 m) in length. There is also a 19 feet (5.8 m) long part on the far west end built of timber, which was originally a 57 feet (17.4 m) long steel pony truss. The bridge has 15 feet (4.6 m) of vertical clearance and is 29 feet (8.8 m) wide, which includes a 7 feet (2.1 m) sidewalk and a 18.5 feet (5.6 m) roadway.

External links

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