Community gathers to celebrate this project milestone
When work began on the Oregon Department of Transportation's largest bridge replacement- the $201 million Interstate 5 Willamette River Bridge in Eugene-Springfield- crews anticipated that the first of the project's two bridges would be complete in October 2011. Because of project innovations and favorable weather, the southbound bridge recently began carrying traffic early, a full two months ahead of schedule. To commemorate the project's halfway point, community members, elected officials and media gathered on Aug. 18 to admire the completed bridge, both from the work bridge below and the structure's deck above.

Visitors to the Sandy River will have better access to surrounding areas
When the Oregon Department of Transportation began construction in 2010 to replace the eastbound and westbound Interstate 84 bridges over the Sandy River, the agency also saw the opportunity to improve the surrounding area. In collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Parks & Recreation Department, the three agencies together saw a way to improve not only the recreationists' access to the river, via the highway, but their enjoyment of it, too.

For other OTIA III Bridge Program news stories.

With the advent of winter weather, the State Radio Project entered a slow period for mountaintop repeater installations; work will continue through the winter at lower elevations. The project team is assessing our progress on the installations and will be reformulating the strategy and schedule to meet our August 2012 deadline to complete that work. This will allow time for testing before the cut-over to narrowband and for addressing any subsequent issues that might arise before the federal deadline of Jan. 1, 2013.

December marked the beginning of the Oregon State Police pilot program in Salem. The project team arranged with OSP to start in Salem first, deploying handheld and mobile radios to local troopers - fish and game, drug enforcement, detectives, criminal units - so they could experience and evaluate them. The project team will address any issues that they have before proceeding with installations for OSP around the state.