ODOT recycles beams from detour bridge.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

The Oregon Department of Transportation is taking recycling to a whole new level with its work on the Interstate 5 bridge replacement project over the McKenzie River north of Eugene.

A parade of trucks has been hauling away 64 huge concrete beams that had supported the detour bridge carrying northbound traffic while a permanent bridge was built. Each is 115 feet long and weighs 70 tons.

It's the first time ODOT has been able to recycle bridge beams, which will be stored on ODOT property west of Bertelsen Road for reuse on other detour and permanent bridges, ODOT spokesman Joe Harwood said.

"Salvaging these beams takes the whole idea of reuse and recycle to a grand scale," Harwood said.

The project is part of the 10-year, $3 billion Oregon Transportation Investment Act approved by the Oregon Legislature in 2003 and funded through state-issued bonds.

ODOT timed the salvage project to avoid traffic conflicts with the 2008 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials that begin June 27, and a city of Eugene improvement project scheduled for Roosevelt Boulevard.

ODOT built the temporary I-5 detour bridge over the McKenzie River in 2004. In the spring of 2007, Springfield-based Hamilton Construction, the prime contractor on the project, started work on permanent bridges.

The new I-5 southbound bridge - wide enough to accommodate four lanes of traffic - opened earlier this month for two lanes each of northbound and southbound traffic. Demolition of the remainder of the detour bridge as well as the old I-5 northbound bridge will begin in July.

The $61 million project - which includes the new northbound and southbound I-5 bridges over the McKenzie River and replacement of I-5 bridges above Highway 58 and Franklin Boulevard in Goshen - will be complete in fall 2009.