For Wire Ropes Tensioning and Testing

HOOD RIVER, OR – The Port of Hood River has scheduled two weekly full-height lifts of the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge to occur every Friday between 4:00AM and 5:00AM for the purpose of tensioning and testing the newly installed wire ropes on the bridge’s lift span. Port crews will perform two back-to-back full height lifts of the span, each lasting approximately 25 minutes, during the hour starting at 4:00AM every Friday through May of 2024.

"The objective of this series of bridge lifts is to allow the ropes to work over the sheaves during operation so that the individual components of the ropes (the wires and strands) can properly seat against each other and achieve their equilibrium state," said Paul Bandlow, bridge engineer with Wiss, Janey, Elstner Associates, the Port’s mechanical and electrical bridge engineering firm. "This is so that when we come back to perform the 6-month rope tensioning, we can reasonably expect that the ropes will essentially be at their final state and the adjustments that are made at that time should hold well into the future."

While some traffic will be able to clear between each of the two lifts, motorists should expect significant delays in crossing during this hour every Friday. "We have already called all of the Breezeby customers that we know use the bridge during that hour frequently to notify them and recommend they either cross earlier or later every Friday, but we also want to ensure that cash-paying customers that use the bridge during that hour are aware of the potential for significant delay," said Kevin Greenwood, Executive Director.

For more information, please contact the Port at frontdesk@portofhoodriver.com.