Welcome back Broadway Bridge

$21.8 million repair job is done on 'giant seesaw'

After six months, bridge traffic is flowing again.

The Broadway Bridge is open. We’ve missed her and those trips to Helen Bernhardt’s Bakery.

The “double-leaf bascule” bridge has been closed since October, except to bikes, mobility devices and pedestrians, who could cross on the south sidewalk.

“Bascule” is a French word that means “seesaw” and describes how the spans rotate upward as they are balanced by counterweights.

On Sunday, a stream of people uniformed in red and black headed over the bridge to watch the Blazers, who would beat Sacramento 122-110 to earn a spot in the Western Conference Play-Ins.

For the project, small sections of the deck were removed one at a time to ensure that the movable bridge sections remain balanced as they open to river traffic.

New streetcar tracks have also been installed in the replaced section of the bridge.

Multnomah County funded the design and 10% of the construction costs, while the federal government paid 90% of the construction costs.