Max J. Kuney Co., of Spokane, has been awarded a $65 million contract to replace two parallel bridges on busy Oregon state Route 99E that cross Union Pacific Railroad tracks in Portland.


Rebuilding the spans, which are called the Martin Luther King Jr. and Grand Avenue viaducts, is the biggest part of a project the Oregon state Department of Transportation (ODOT) began in the southeast part of the city last May.


Earlier work on the project included related roadway, utility, and drainage improvements.


Steve Busch, Kuneys chief estimator, says the project will require building a series of temporary bridges to enable traffic on the highway to continue to flow through that area while the viaducts are being replaced.


Busch says construction of the bridges is expected to begin by early next month, but the viaducts probably wont be completed until May 2010, due partly to the added work in building and dismantling the temporary bridges.


ODOT says on its Web site that one of the bridges slated to be replaced is 1,639 feet long, which makes it the longest concrete slab, beam, and girder-style structure in Oregon. Busch says, though, that the project calls for reducing the length of each viaduct to about 1,100 feet. The new viaducts, like those being replaced, will be constructed of concrete, he says.


The same Web site says that, counting the traffic on both bridges, a total of about 60,000 vehicles cross the viaducts daily, with traffic peaks exceeding 6,000 vehicles per hour.


Busch says the bridges are located about four miles south of the big Lloyd Center shopping mall, near the southeast Portland suburb of Milwaukie.


He says the bridges were built in 1936 and 1965, and that the older one, which carries southbound traffic, is in such bad shape that they dont let trucks on it anymore.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at rockyw@spokanejournal.com.