Sean C. Morgan
Two old Sweet Home neighbors are working on the same bridge in Tacoma, Wash., one as an engineer, the other helping build forms for the bridge at Willamette Valley Rehab Center.
Mark Luton, along with other Sweet Home residents, has helped build the forms at Willamette Rehab in Lebanon. T.J. Paul, Luton’s neighbor when he still lived in Sweet Home, is an engineer with Bechtel Engineering working on Tacoma Narrows bridge from Tacoma to Gig Harbor.
A new suspension bridge is under construction parallel to and south of the existing two-lane bridge, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
The new bridge will include a separated path for bicycles and pedestrians and provide three lanes for eastbound traffic. It is designed to accommodate a second deck in the future.
The existing bridge will provide three lanes for westbound traffic. The project includes seismic upgrades for the bridge.
The bridge is designed to help relieve congestion, with daily traffic counts of 85,000 to 90,000 vehicles. That is expected to reach 120,000 vehicles per day by 2020.
The new bridge will open in 2007 with upgrades to the existing bridge completed by 2008.
The project will cost $849 million.
Willamette Rehab won a bid to build the forms for the decorative work on the bridge, which is under expansion from two to six lanes.
The forms are built to narrow tolerances at different sizes depending on where they will be used on the bridge.
The forms serve as casts for the concrete, Dale Pearson of Willamette Rehab said.
“We put a fractured fin on them after they showed up,” Paul said. The fractured fin is like a blade in the concrete and leaves impressions in the concrete when the forms are pulled away. The project “makes the bridge resemble the old bridge.”
Paul leads a crew of five pile bucker carpenters. His duties include surveying, ordering materials and putting plans together.
Paul, specifically a “strut engineer,” is working on the struts of the towers from which the bridge is suspended. The struts are 85 feet log, “basically a big box of concrete that spans between the two tower legs.”
Each strut will include 3.6 million pounds of concrete. Crews poured their first concrete on Jan 8. That pour included 221 yards of mud.
Willamette clients assist Bob Neill, a 13-year employee of Willamette Rehab, by pre-cutting lumber and other pieces for the form. Neill assembles the forms.
“We did a wide variety of oddball stuff here,” Neill said. The forms range in size from eight or nine feet to 36 feet or longer.
Willamette Rehab has built two types of forms. Earlier in the project, Willamette Rehab built structural forms, called strongbacks, which are bolted together to build the structure. As it wraps up the project, it is completing decorative forms for the top of the 510-foot concrete towers.
“It’s pretty intricate work we’re doing right now,” Pearson said.
“I do a lot of work with brokers in Portland,” Pearson said. Through one of them he was put in contact with Key Wit and Hamilton Construction, which are building the bridge.
Pearson and Willamette Rehab have been working on bridges for 10 years. This particular project started in August when Willamette Rehab began working on about 150 of the structural forms. Willamette Rehab has completed about 100 of the decorative forms in various sizes.
The project is nearly complete, and Willamette Rehab will go to work next on a bridge project in the San Francisco Bay Area in California.
“I’m kind of excited to see how the final product turns out,” Paul said. He praised Willamette Valley Rehab for getting the forms to the project on time and early enough to make adjustments.
Willamette Rehab provides employment opportunities for persons with physical, mental or developmental disabilities.
Clients work in a wood shop, provide janitorial services or a variety of other work that they can handle based on their disabilities.
Among Willamette Rehab’s jobs is its custodial service with Lebanon School District. Willamette entered into a contract with Lebanon School District this year to provide custodial service in all eight district buildings.
The contract created about 20 new full-time jobs at Willamette Rehab, 15 new jobs for persons with disabilities, Marty Baughman of Willamette Rehab said. “As they complete their training, those individuals will also receive health benefits. I appreciate the opportunity the School District is giving us to work for them.”
The building’s under Willamette Rehab’s contract range in size from 20,000 square feet at the main office to 194,000 square feet at the high school. The district has some 582,000 square feet.
Willamette Rehab cleans each building every day. In the summer, crews will provide deep cleaning, including stripping and finishing the floors.
Willamette Rehab also provides custodial service to commercial buildings throughout the Willamette Valley, from Eugene to Salem.