ODOT, Hamilton Construction Replace Bridge From 1913
Workers are completing the new bridge and, at the same time, protecting the Willamette River flowing underneath.
By Chuck MacDonald
The old Van Buren Bridge carried two lanes of eastbound traffic through Corvallis, Ore., for many decades.
But the bridge, which was built in 1913, was under weight restriction and couldn’t safely support a firetruck.
In response, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is working closely with local firm Hamilton Construction to build a new bridge designed by DOWL Engineering.
Corvallis is a bustling city that is home to approximately
38,000 students at Oregon State University. Students and locals use the Willamette River flowing under the bridge for kayaking, boating, fishing and other recreational activities. The university’s rowing team also glides through these waters.
The project is about 90 percent complete; the construction team plans to finish it this year. The job will cost about $85 million, with the bridge serving as a welcoming landmark to the city.
In addition to the two traffic lanes carrying cars and freight, the bridge will have a bike lane and shared-use path for walkers who prefer a more leisurely pace to absorb the scenic
Work required five large cranes, some capable of handling a 250-ton lift.
views from above.
“Our contractor had to build three bridges during the project: one temporary construction bridge used to build the new Van Buren Bridge, one temporary bridge to carry one lane of vehicle traffic and the final new bridge itself,” Mindy McCartt, an ODOT spokesperson told Construction Equipment Guide. “The two temporary bridges had to be very sturdy. They carried all types of vehicular traffic with no weight restrictions, and the construction bridge also had to support several heavy cranes during construction.
see BRIDGE page 8
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Feenaughty Machinery Becomes Trimble 2D Certified
Construction Starts On WSU’s
$18M Plant Growth Facility
Years in the making, the new Plant Growth Facility at Washington State University’s Wenatchee Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center (TFREC) began construction on April 1, 2026.
The WSU Board of Regents greenlit construction in March of a final design finetuned by scientists and architects to support current and future tree fruit research needs.
Flad Architects and Absher Construction are the design-build team.
Construction of the $18 million, 24,000-sq.-ft. facility is expected to wrap up in a year, with an opening planned for summer 2027.
Replacing 70-year-old greenhouses, the new building was designed to meet critical space and environmental needs for plant growth and scientific experiments.
Controlled environments are one of TFREC’s biggest needs.
In the new design, two wings of planned greenhouse space with 20 compartments, totaling about 9,000 sq. ft., will let researchers control lighting, temperature and CO2 levels. That level of control will help researchers more quickly develop ways to help trees withstand heat, cold, drought, pests and diseases.
Similarly, other new workspaces and laboratories built into the design, including a 2,150-sq.-ft. clean microbiology lab space, as well as several rooms for DNAbased experiments, create the necessary infrastructure for new projects.
Supporting the greenhouses, a roomy new headhouse offers a large working area with support facilities and an attached 1,500-sq.-ft. area for growth chambers.
Along with a common area and administrative space, the Plant Growth Facility also will include an 80-person capacity conference area, where WSU scientists can host conferences to educate industry members and share discoveries. The space will be 40 percent larger than the biggest existing meeting space at TFREC.
The Plant Growth Facility will be used throughout the year by researchers from eight different WSU programs, including breeding, tree and environmental physiology, pests and diseases and tree fruit.
Two U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists engaged in whole-plant research, pear genetics and plant pathology will also use the space.
KOBLECO Machinery USA (KCMU) announced that Feenaughty Machinery Co. is now a certified Trimble 2D Earthworks provider through KOBELCO.
This program certifies Feenaughty Machinery, which has locations in Portland, Ore., Eugene, Ore., and Woodinville, Wash., to sell and support KOBELCO Trimble 2D machine guidance and machine control systems directly to KOBELCO customers.
The Trimble Earthworks Grade Control Platform by KOBELCO is a grade control platform from Trimble that the company said features intuitive, easy-to-learn software that runs on an Android operating system. The software and hardware give KOBELCO operators of all skill levels the ability to work faster and more productively than ever before.
Feenaughty Machinery Co. has supported the construction and forestry industries in the Pacific Northwest for more than 100 years. Since its beginning in 1901, Feenaughty has been a familyowned business.
Trimble is a global technology company that connects the physical and digital worlds, transforming the ways work gets done.
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Winter Storms Damage Jetty... USACE Awards $30M Contract for Grays Harbor North Jetty
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) announced that it has awarded an approximately $30 million construction contract with Astoria, Ore.-based Big River Construction to repair the North Jetty at the entrance to Grays Harbor near Ocean Shores, Wash.
The century-old boulder berm was damaged by winter storms and wave overtopping, which left portions narrowed along the crest, according to hoodline.com. Local officials said an effective jetty is needed to keep the Port of Grays Harbor’s navigation channel open for deep-draft vessels.
The USACE Seattle District said in a March 5 announcement that the repair work will run from the jetty head to the tail.
Crews will replace displaced armor stone in the hardest-hit stretches, while rebuilding parts of the jetty crest with land-based heavy equipment working along the top.
The USACE will pay for any pavement or right-of-way damages caused by the heavy truck traffic, The Daily World reported.
Construction is expected to stretch across multiple building seasons as crews rebuild sections of the jetty profile and work to keep the navigation channel secure for harbor traffic. Nov. 1, 2029, is the target date for project completion.
USACE project images include a haulroute map that will send trucks full of quarry rock down Ocean Shores Boulevard to the work zones, hoodline.com reported. It also identified staging areas and defined the limits of construction activity.
KOBELCO photo
Representatives of Feenaughty Machinery Co., KOBELCO and the Trimble certification team
United States Army Corps of Engineers photo
A $30 million project will repair the North Jetty at the entrance to Grays Harbor in Washington state.
Idaho Wildlife Underpass Project On U.S. 30 Begins
Construction efforts on three wildlife underpasses on U.S. 30 began near Montpelier in April.
This grant-funded project under the direction of the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) will include the installation of two concrete box culverts, one bridge, and 6 road-mi. of 8-ft. tall fencing between highway mileposts 442 and 448.
Idaho Material Construction is the project contractor.
This short section of highway intersects with a topographic bottleneck, known as Rocky Point, that funnels migratory mule deer along a regionally important mule deer migration route. It is there within these few miles that motorists can encounter some of the worst points of conflict with wildlife on U.S. 30 between Montpelier and the Wyoming border.
Data collected by Idaho Fish and Game and ITD shows that of the deer killed on just one 20-mi. stretch of U.S. 30, about 70 percent are reported at Rocky Point.
Once completed (estimated fall 2026), this underpass project will improve driver safety while protecting migrating deer and other wildlife.
“This project is equally important to both ITD and Idaho Fish and Game and has received broad support from the Bear Lake County community because of the benefits to both human and wildlife safety, said Regional Wildlife Manager Zach Lockyer of Idaho Fish and Game. “Hunters and other wildlife enthusiasts value this mule deer resource, and
protecting it has added benefits to both the economy and quality of life in this part of southeast Idaho.
The grant awarded to ITD to fund this $12 million project is part of $125 million in federal grants awarded to 16 states through the Federal Highway Administration’s Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program.
“We are excited to get this project fully funded and built,” ITD’s District 5 Environmental Planner Alissa Salmore said. “Local citizens and our Montpelier shed crew have been asking for a solution here for decades. It will be good to finally deliver this project, both for people and for wildlife.”
Work Begins at The District at Ten Miles in Meridian
Developers broke ground on May 5, 2026, on The District at Ten Mile, a major commercial center that will be built on 220 acres of land near the Ten Mile Interchange in Meridian, Idaho, according to the Idaho Statesman.
Construction has begun on the development’s first phase, Treasure Valley developer Tommy Ahlquist said.
“We have designed and built The District at Meridian around that idea, where people can come and enjoy their work and really enjoy being in Idaho, being together as a community and being part of a community like Meridian,” he said.
“It will redefine the shape of the Treasure Valley for generations.”
McAlvain Cos. Inc. is the general contractor of the project.
That work includes two industrial buildings along Interstate 84, a day care center, a more than 100,000-sq.-ft. Life Time fitness center and two hotels.
And work has begun on a 148,000-sq.-ft. Target, which will anchor The District at Ten Mile’s
second phase of development, Ahlquist told the Statesman.
The Target’s vertical construction is expected to start in June, with a tentative opening in May 2027, according to the Statesman. The Target will be just part of a large slate of retail totaling more than 650,000 sq. ft.
At the groundbreaking, Meridian Mayor Robert Simison said the plans for the area’s development date to 2005 — before the interchange was even built.
Ahlquist told the Statesman that the development’s third and final phase would include a 35acre “lifestyle center” that draws inspiration from The Village at Meridian shopping center.
Other parts of the project include residential development that includes up to 400 townhomes and four industrial building that add approximately 230,000 sq. ft. of space for industrial tenants, the Statesman reported. Four smaller industrial “flex” buildings would follow at an unspecified time.
Idaho Transportation Department rendering Wildlife underpass construction area
Idaho Transportation Department rendering
A recently built wildlife overpass in Idaho is credited with a reduction in animal collisions.
Meridian Chamber of Commerce
rendering for the future District at Ten Mile was displayed at the project’s groundbreaking on May 5, 2026.
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Workers Build Three Bridges During Course of Project
A worker starts the removal of a portion of the old bridge.
BRIDGE rom page 1
“The temporary bridges flanked the new bridge with a bridge carrying the westbound traffic for OR 34, located a few yards away. The construction team operated under a time restriction, with in-water work only allowed from June to October. The bridge also was designed according to the latest seismic guidelines. The temporary bridges enabled workers to keep traffic flowing along this city’s crucial bridge.”
the old steel bridge once the new bridge is completed.
Drilling
One of the most challenging aspects of the bridge was the workers finding a solid foundation to build upon. The construction team drilled through many feet of clay and sandstone. The holes were drilled more than 200 ft. deep in many places. The drilled shafts, 8 ft. in diameter, were
see BRIDGE page 10
Because of height restrictions, workers had to place two of the rebar cages one on top of the other. Workers fashioned the rebar cages on site.
The contractor had to build three bridges during the construction, including two temporary bridges to work from to construct the Van Buren Bridge. The project is about 90 percent complete, with plans to finish it this year.
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Finding Solid Foundation Challenging for Contractors
BRIDGE from page 8
Because of crane height limitations, crews could only install the rebar cages in sections. They would lower a roughly 45-ft. section into the shaft, then position another section above it and tie the two together before continuing to lower the cage into place. Once the full cage was assembled in the shaft, it was filled with concrete. The rebar cages were fabricated on site.
“The noise of the construction was loud,” McCartt said. “I was impressed by the crane operators from their chairs using the pile drivers for precision strikes to drive the pilings into the river bottom. It requires great skill to deliver those blows accurately on the pilings.”
Workers used 2,500 cu. yds. of concrete for the drill shafts, 1,250 cu. yds. for the bridge deck and nearly 1,000 cu. yds. in other parts of the project. The team used 423,000 lbs. of steel for the rebar.
Workers were careful while operating near the river, as the project included environmental protection measures.
Crews installed water quality swales to treat roadway runoff, and containment systems were used during over-water
work to prevent debris from entering the river. The construction activity required five large cranes, including some capable of handling a 250-ton lift.
Workers are being meticulous in protecting trees and planting vegetation as the project nears completion.
The area under the bridge also will see foot and bicycle traffic as the ground is graded, and workers create a natural greenway and access to the parks nearby.
In addition to the bridge work, the construction team will make improvements to the intersection of Van Buren Avenue and NW First Street, installing a new signal to replace the flashing yellow pedestrian crossing light.
“It was an impressive sight to watch the bridge taking shape over the last three years,” McCartt said. “The contractor has done an excellent job in building a bridge that is already becoming a shining star for the community. The crews have taken a lot of pride in building something they can show their friends and family for years to come.”
CEG (All photos courtesy of the Oregon Department of Transportation.)
