Center Street Bridge Replacement Project Going As Planned

The Center Street Bridge project is scheduled to be completed by October.

Center Street project on Saturday Photo by: Kevin Hays

(SALEM) - The Center Street Bridge demolition project is going according to plan, say city and project leaders. City of Salem Public Works spokesman Mike Gotterba says a creek diversion is in place which will allow crews to remove what was the bridge’s center pier.

The fish salvage process is also working well.

The project included removal of the house on the southeast corner of the bridge. This has been completed and the contractor is using this property for staging and water quality control Gotterba said.

Over the next couple of weeks, the contractor should finish removing the old bridge, then they will run a new sanitary sewer line to replace an old line that is being abandoned as part of the project.

Pile driving for the new bridge is about two weeks away.

"This will be a noisy process and we will make sure that we communicate to everyone well in advance." Gotterba said.

The city has had reports of additional cut-through traffic on Chemeketa Street NE and 14th Street NE but overall, the detour continues to work well, Project manager Tom Donahue said.

The narrow, functionally obsolete bridge built in 1914 is being replaced with a new, wider bridge that will accommodate automobile, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic.

The new bridge will have two vehicle travel lanes and one left-turn lane, plus new shoulders, curbs, and sidewalks on each side.

Additionally, approximately 500 feet of Center Street NE east of the bridge will be realigned to match the new bridge, along with replacement and relocation of existing utilities.