Looking at the site of the former logjam under the Albany railroad bridge on Friday afternoon.
Now that the job of clearing a big pile of river debris is complete, let’s take one more look at the Albany railroad bridge where the work was done.
For years the southern-most in-water pier of the bridge was collecting logs and other driftwood coming down the Willamette each winter. This week a contractor for the railroad spent a few days dismantling the pile.
The five-man crew from Advanced American Construction, an experienced marine construction and recovery business based in Portland, used two boats in the river and a winch on the bank to pull the material apart.
I haven’t reached anyone to ask how much this job was costing. But I’m guessing it wasn’t cheap.
The river is down from its high winter and springtime flows, running at about 4½ or 5 feet on the Albany gauge. The water level has exposed some deep gouges near the base of this pier.
The Southern Pacific Railroad built the bridge in 1921, replacing the wooden bridge that had been in place for many years.
It’s not clear from the sketchy stories in the papers at the time whether the Southern Pacific constructed the piers as well, or whether only the wooden spans carrying the track were replaced.
Either way, those piers are well over a century old, which may explain the gouges we see here. (hh)
This pier of the railroad bridge bears the marks of a century of being battered by debris floating down the Willamette River.
A lot of the credit for getting this job done goes to you for your stories about it, Hasso. Good job!
I believe you deserve some credit as well. For consistent updates on the progress or not progress of happenings around town.
Now that it’s been stripped of its protective shield, it’ll probably get gouged :)