HERMISTON, Ore.-The City of Hermiston is taking the next steps toward a new Umatilla River Bridge crossing.
City Council unanimously approved Resolution 2406, approving an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between Hermiston, the City of Umatilla and Umatilla County to plan and pursue federal funding for a Umatilla River bridge crossing, at its regular meeting on February 9.
Hermiston’s Transportation System Plan identified the need for more Umatilla River bridge crossings back in the 1990’s, according to Hermiston’s Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan, in a presentation on the IGA and bridge project to City Council.
A Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) commissioned by Hermiston, Umatilla and Umatilla County studied two options for a possible Umatilla River bridge crossing, one at Punkin Center and another on Elm Avenue.
The PER identified the plan to extend Punkin Center across the Umatilla River to directly connect with I-82, with an estimated cost of $44 million, as the best option in 2022, according to information presented at the City Council meeting.
The potential bridge connecting Hermiston, Umatilla and I-82, would improve traffic and emergency access, while encouraging continued economic benefit, according to a letter of support for the project from Hermiston Mayor Doug Primmer.
“The Punkin Center Bridge is lower cost, but additionally it just has a lot more positive impact in the sense that it’s serving a lot more traffic needs as determined through the traffic analysis, but there’s also few negative, downstream impacts,” said Morgan.
The next step is to apply for a federal BUILD planning grant to complete a 30 percent design of the project, that will include cost estimates and highlight any possible engineering or environmental issues with the bridge crossing.
The IGA between Hermiston, Umatilla and Umatilla County is for designing and planning the potential bridge crossing project, not construction funding.
“It’s important to keep in mind this IGA does not commit any of the partners,” said Morgan. “It explicitly states it does not commit any of the partners to actually committing any funding for future construction.”
Future steps of the project, following completion of 30 percent design of the project, include determining the construction cost commitments of each partner and applying for construction grant funding.
