Crooked River Gorge Bridge
Location: Terrebonne, OR Contract Value:
Oregon State Highway officials wanted a signature bridge to span across the 90-metre deep gorge carved out by the Crooked River. The new four lane concrete bridge is a 125-metre clear span and carries traffic diverted from the 1926 steel arch bridge designed by the legendary engineer, Conde B. McCullough. The segmentally cast-in-place arch was designed so it could be built using tie-backs from a temporary tower. The state pre-qualified construction teams prior to bid and Somerset was approached by one of the contractors for our experience with cable-stayed bridges. During the tender period, we established that using a 245-metre span cableway to construct the bridge was more economical than using cranes from each bank. After the job was awarded, Somerset performed all of the construction engineering for the arch geometry, cantilever stresses and tieback forces. We also provided the engineering for the cableway, which is owned and was installed by KWH Constructors.
