On the Cox Creek Bridge on Waverly Drive, Wednesday, May 20, 2026.
The long-awaited project to replace the Cox Creek Bridge on Waverly Drive is about to take place.
The bridge, restricted to one lane for more than 20 years, is the gateway to Simpson Park, the Millersburg rail yard, and Talking Water Gardens.
On Tuesday, the Linn County Board of Commissioners awarded the contract to replace the bridge to Legacy Contracting, of Scio. The company submitted the second-lowest bid at $2,441,679.
The lowest bid was $2,285,915. The board rejected it because, in the words of the county’s press release on the Tuesday meeting, the “bidder failed to supply all required documentation.”
Except for seeding and planting, the contractor has 160 days to complete the construction of the new bridge, and it must be completed by Nov. 20, 2026.
The existing bridge was built in 1957. It has been weight-restricted since 2005, when Linn County reduced it to one lane.
The new bridge will be a single span of prestressed concrete. It will be wide enough to accommodate two lanes plus bicycle and pedestrian traffic.
Having the longer span will avoid creating bank erosion.
The structure will be built in two phases so that during construction one lane will remain open to traffic.
The location is inside the city of Millersburg. Linn County is administering the project through an intergovernmental agreement with Millersburg.
This decrepit old bridge is on one of my regular bike routes, and I’m looking forward to the replacement finally taking place. (hh)
Looking at the bridge from the right bank of Cox Creek on Wednesday, May 20, 2026.
Gotta be the worst bridge in linn county….looks like the same engineer that built that railroad bridge in corvallis that the train fell into the river…oh my trains don’t float…