PORTLAND, Ore. — The Interstate Bridge Replacement Program hit a key milestone last week with the release of the megaproject’s Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, and the lengthy report included about a dozen new visualizations that insert models of the bridge into real-world photos for the first time, setting up simulated before-and-after shots and providing a clearer sense of what the new crossing would look like when built.
The current twin bridges are hard to miss with their distinctive green shade and 200-foot lift span towers, but their eventual replacement could rise even higher along much of its length. Several of the new renderings show multiple versions of the replacement bridge, because the project team is still working to get the U.S. Coast Guard to sign off on a “fixed crossing” design instead of a drawbridge.
No matter which direction the project ultimately takes, the report stresses repeatedly that the images for both configurations are very early mockups and do not represent the final bridge design, so they should be viewed with that in mind…