Oregon Public Broadcasting

Friday, a group of elected officials considers what to do about the aging and rickety Sellwood Bridge -- Portland's southernmost Willamette River bridge.

They'll decide whether to accept the recommendation of citizens who've volunteered for the past two and a half years. As Christy George reports, it's a real test of Oregon's reputation for civic engagement.

Ted Wheeler: "Thank you on behalf of all in the Policy Advisory Group. You did a great job!"

The fate of the Sellwood Bridge is now up to Multnomah County Commission chair Ted Wheeler and officials in Clackamas counties, the city of Portland and the state.

Everyone on the Community Task Force knows Wheeler's group may ignore everything they recommended: if the old bridge will stay open during construction or close? If construction happens all at once or in phases? Whether the new bridge will be two lanes or three? 

Brian Wilson joined the Task Force when it started, in the summer of 2006.

Brian Wilson: "Everyone walked onto the committee with an idea of how to fix the Sellwood Bridge, and probably could've done it in a night if we'd had a pencil and the back of a napkin."

The Community Task Force includes all the stakeholders: drivers, truckers, bus riders, bikers, walkers, kayakers, business owners, property-owners, an architect, a bridge historian, a preservationist and residents on both sides of the bridge.

Amazingly enough, they reached about as close to consensus as you can imagine.

Barbara Barber lives in Sellwood and owns the restaurant Three Square Grill across the Willamette River.

Barbara Barber: "It's going to be interesting to see if the politicians go ahead and honor our work or whether they have their own ideas about what should happen here. "

The Sellwood is a two-lane bridge that connects a two-lane street on Portland's east side with a two-lane highway on the west side.

So why should anyone in La Grande or Lakeview care about a two-lane bridge in Portland?

On a scale of one to 100, 100 being the safest possible bridge and one being absolutely not safe at all, the Sellwood is a 2.2.

Remember that bridge in Minnesota that collapsed? That was a 50 out of 100.

Barbara Barber: "I cross that bridge and hope that's not the day the future bridge became the Barbara Barber Memorial Bridge."

Clackamas County Chair Lynn Peterson bikes across the Sellwood.

Lynn Peterson: "You know, as a civil engineer myself, I feel confident that if they're allowing us over the bridge, it's safe."

Christy George: "But in an earthquake? All bets are off, right?"

Lynn Peterson: "I'm in denial."

TriMet pulled all of its busses off the bridge back in 2004, but people still use it. Thirty thousand vehicles a day use it.

In fact, it's the busiest two-lane bridge in Oregon. And Peterson says most of them live in Clackamas County.

Lynn Peterson: "When people get up in the morning in Clackamas County and drive off to work, they use the Sellwood Bridge."

Peterson worries about finding close to $300 million for a new bridge.

Bill Dickey is a partner in the Witham & Dickey printing business, and a volunteer on the bridge project.

Bill Dickey: "I have to admit I crack my window when I go across."

The Sellwood Bridge is not shovel-ready, so it probably won't get federal stimulus money, but Dickey is that rarest of businesspeople who says.

Bill Dickey: "Tax me. Please, tax me!"

He thinks Oregonians today have lost their claim to civic engagement because they don't want to pay the bills.

Bill Dickey: "We elect these people to do a job and sometimes they have to serve us a bitter pill, and then fight for their seat next time out because they raised our taxes."

Ted Wheeler: "It's not necessarily the kind of thing politicians who serve relatively short terms like to engage in, but we have to replace this span and we have to do it now."

Ted Wheeler says he's willing to go out on a limb - but only if the community keeps making the case for a new Sellwood Bridge.

If you want to hear more about civic engagement and civil discourse, check out Friday's Think Out Loud show .