Seaside bridge design to be recreation friendly

Published 4:00 pm Thursday, November 27, 2003

Construction to start in early December; traffic to be diverted to First Avenue bridgeSEASIDE – Seaside residents Pedro Orizaga and Jeremy Hyde braved chilly temperatures to catch a few flounder before the 12th Avenue Bridge in Seaside is shut down for reconstruction. The project is scheduled to begin next week.

“I do not have a hard and fast date, but I’m told either Dec. 1 or shortly thereafter,” Public Works Director Neal Wallace said. The bridge is expected be completed by May 24.

The city has posted “no crabbing, no fishing” signs at both ends of the bridge, but they will remain covered until the bridge is closed. Once it is closed, no fishing or crabbing will be allowed until the bridge is completed. When it does reopen, the bridge’s new design will make it safer for recreational use and traffic flow.

“The rails on this bridge will really be different to accommodate recreational users,” Wallace said. “All of the other rails on the bridges are broad and concrete, which makes it hard to lean over and throw crab pots. On this bridge, we will have a concrete base, but the top part will be a tubular aluminum railing, which will be a lot easier to fish and crab from.”

The $1.4 million project is funded by an $870,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation and $530,000 from Seaside’s Urban Renewal District. The contractor is Concrete Enterprises of Stayton.

A city-owned vacant lot on Necanicum Drive south of 11th Avenue will serve as the staging area for the heavy equipment and materials. Traffic will be detoured to the First Avenue bridge. To allow residential access to the north end of Necanicum, the city will build a temporary road that will curve around 12th and Necanicum and “just miss the little bathroom structure on the corner.”

The project’s first step is to build a temporary structure that will allow pedestrian access over the Necanicum River at 12th Avenue. Construction crews will also move utilities from the bridge to the structure. Once the utilities have been moved, bridge demolition will begin, Wallace said.

One of the biggest benefits of the new bridge will be smoother traffic flow on 12th Avenue. Bridge plans include wider traffic lanes, straighter alignment and 8 foot sidewalks which widen to 16 feet at the bridge’s center. This will make it easier for fishermen, crabbers, bicyclists and surrey drivers to share the sidewalks.

“Another benefit to the community as a whole is that we will have one more water structure that meets current seismic standards,” Wallace said.

The 12th Avenue bridge is the fourth of Seaside’s nine bridges that have been rebuilt in the past six years.