[All-Gorge] ⚖️ Bridge Liability Untangled - HRWS Bridge Authority July '26

 Overnight bridge closures are coming in August, and we've got the full schedule. Plus the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority spent July untangling three separate insurance headaches at once, while the Port of Hood River made a real concession on handing over land.

In This Episode:

• Overnight bridge closures coming August 17 through September 11
• Kiewit takes the lead on test pile liability, ending a month-long standoff
• USDOT rules the INFRA grant construction-only, tightening the cash timeline
• One invoice stuck in federal review for 417 days
• The Port of Hood River signals it'll hand over land for construction
• The stalled Marina Park dispute with federal park officials
• Why "special district" status keeps coming up, and why the Authority still doesn't have it
• Whether rising construction insurance costs are a Gorge problem or a national one

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at SkamaniaDispatch.com
• Port of Hood River: Overnight Bridge Closures notice (schedule also posted in Spanish)
• HRWSBA meeting agendas & materials
• Prior coverage: Bridge Test Piles Halted by Insurance Hurdles (June)
• Prior coverage: $3.4M State Park Dispute Hits Bridge Project (March)

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Transcript

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Hey you, welcome back to Open Gorge. Today we have another All Gorge episode talking about the Hood River White Salmon Bridge Authority. And honestly, this one's got a little bit of everything today. Insurance fights, a federal funding maze, and a surprise concession from the port of Hood River. Let's start with the good news, because there is some. For months now, the Bridge Authority's been stuck on a question that sounds small, but really isn't. Who's responsible if driving test piles into the riverbed damages the hundred-year-old bridge that's still standing right next to the construction site? Back in June, nobody wanted to touch that risk, and this month that finally got resolved. The contractor Kewit, they're the ones actually pounding the piles into the river, agreed to take the lead on setting the safety thresholds themselves. That matters because Kewit already carries the insurance and the liability for the project generally. So instead of bringing in some third party to make the call, the folks holding the risk are the ones setting the rules. Seems a lot cleaner and simpler. And it happened after a joint meeting in late July with the port, the engineering team, and the port's own engineers. Now here's where it gets interesting, because that liability question isn't really about the test piles, it's about something bigger. The bridge authority, when it was created by Oregon and Washington, didn't get written into any normal legal categories. Not a city, not a county, not a port, it's its own thing. And that gap means it can't buy into the cheaper group insurance pool that every other public agency in the state gets to use. One commissioner put it pretty bluntly on the recording this month. He said, quote, it did not adequately describe what kind of entity the Bridge Authority was. It made it just as a thing of its own, and that's problematic, end quote. Fixing that needs a brand new law, and the earliest real shot at that is the 2027 legislative session. Until then, the authority stuck paying more than it probably should for insurance. So here's the thing: this isn't happening in a vacuum. Construction insurance is getting more expensive everywhere right now. Industry reports put general liability costs up around 22% this year alone. I'm going to repeat that number because that is wild, y'all. Industry reports that general liability costs are up 22% this year. That's like more than four times or five times what inflation is. So some of what the bridge authority is feeling, it's not unique to them. It's the entire industry. Even the delivery method they're using to build this bridge, it's something called the progressive design build, gets flagged by risk experts as carrying extra liability friction almost everywhere it's used. There's even a bridge project down in Baltimore, the one rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge that ran its own test pile program on almost the exact same timeline as this one. So this bridge authority is not alone out there, but that specific legal gap being nobody's normal category, that part really does look like it's just this authority's own problem tied to how the founding paperwork got written years ago. I'm looking forward to seeing how they try to work that out in the coming legislative session. So let's talk money because as you can hear, there's a lot of costs going up and a lot of money moving right now, or frankly, in this case, not moving. The big federal grant that everybody's been waiting on is called Infra, and it's $200 million, so not a small amount. This month, the Federal Transportation Department told the authority in writing that money can only be used for construction, not design, which means that the authority still has to cover its design costs some other way until that grant actually lands. Staff are trying to carve out smaller $8 million pieces of that same funding package so it can move on its own separate from the bigger fight. And then there's this one, a single invoice for $404,000, has been sitting in federal review for 417 days. So things have been moving a lot more slowly across many pieces of the federal government in these last years, and I'm bummed to say that this is no exception. A new reviewer came in and instead of just checking the paperwork, started asking how the authority calculated its billing rates in the first place. Going all the way back to 2023, staff had to track down records from contractors who aren't even on the project anymore. And one commissioner's response was pretty direct. The authority already paid that bill out of its own pocket rather than wait around, and then asked the obvious follow-up. What happens when it's not $400,000, but when it's $15 million? That's really the tension sitting underneath every single thing this month. The authority has warned federal officials in writing that every year of delay on their part cost tens of millions of dollars to the total cost of this bridge, and that is indeed to the total cost being fronted by taxpayers. That same math came up again in this month's meetings as commissioners debate whether to keep waiting on a slower, cheaper federal loan program or move faster with bonds at a higher interest rate. We'll actually get real numbers on that trade-off next month when the project's financial advisor presents to the board on August 24th. A quick word on the design work because that's moving too, at least. The 60% design package, think of that as a little past halfway to buildable plans, is done for the main structure. Foundations are expected mid-August. Design overall is about two months behind the original contract date, mostly from permitting delays, but the date that actually matters, the one that gates construction, is in March of 2027, and that's still on track. The contractor's running under budget too, and the board now reviews their full progress report every month instead of in pieces. Okay, before we go further, this is the part that actually affects your drive, so listen up if you cross the bridge at night. The bridge is closing overnight completely on a bunch of nights between mid-August and mid-September, 11.30 at night until 5 in the morning. The first stretch is going to be August 17th through the 19th, then August 26th through the 27th, then August 31st through September 3rd, then September 8th through the 10th. So here's the good news buried in there. The port says the work might finish in fewer nights than that. They booked the extra windows just in case things run long, and they'll put out updates if the closures get canceled. So what are they doing up there while they're closing the bridge? They're going to be lowering drilling equipment off the side of the bridge down to the Washington shoreline, doing the exploration, and then hauling it back up. Turns out that shoreline is really hard to reach. You've got a tribal fishing access site on one side, and then the railroad on the other, and then water too shallow to float a barge in close. The team looked at building a road through railroad property, and they even looked at a helicopter. It turns out that just lowering the gear off the bridge won out is the simplest option. The port's careful to say this follows, quote, an approved and validated process designed to avoid damage to the existing bridge. Unquote. Which, yeah, same worry that's been driving this whole test pile conversation. I'm glad somebody's looking out for the safety of the current bridge. So, 11 30 p.m. to 5 a.m., mid-August into September. Plan another route and check on the dates. The full schedule is also on the port's website and is posted there in Spanish too. We also try to post it up on the written edition of the dispatch. Alright, one more piece of good news before we get to what's still stuck. Port of Hodder River, which owns a lot of the land this project needs, has been holding out for compensation for over a year now. This month, the port's president told the project team he actually supports just handing over the land the authority needs. Straightforward, no fight, and plans to recommend that to the full port commission. That's a real shift, and it should clear one of the bigger obstacles standing between now and construction. Not everything's resolved though. There's a separate fight we've been following over a small piece of federally protected parkland near the port called Marina Park. Building the new bridge means using a sliver of that land for something other than recreation, and federal rules say that triggers a requirement to replace its value somewhere else. Unless the authority can convince regulators that the new bridge, with its walking path and cleaned up buildings, actually may count as an improvement to the park. A meeting between the authority and federal park officials happened right at the end of July. There's no resolution yet, but we'll keep you posted on where that lands. So, what's next? The authority is now reviewing its contractor's progress report every single month at the second board meetings, so expect more regular updates on cost and schedule going forward. As you can see, it's a hot topic and one that I know that we'll be following until the shovels finally drop. That financing presentation, bonds plus the federal loan, lands August 24th. And everyone's still watching for that big federal grant announcement, which is expected sometime before the end of September. The Federal Fiscal Year Deadline. The Federal Fiscal Year Deadline. So that's it for this one. If you want the full written breakdown with all the numbers and the sourcing behind them, you can always head over to SchamaniaDispatch.com. You've been listening to a production of opengorge.org, home of the Scamania Dispatch and the Clicka Taddler. We believe that informed communities are stronger communities. To support our work and stay up to date on everything happening in the gorge, head over to schamania dispatch.com to sign up for our newsletters. You can also find us on Facebook at facebook.comslash open gorge. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on today's episode. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.