Eugene finishes $4.3 million Chambers Street bridge seismic retrofit

Eugene has finished the Chambers Street bridge seismic retrofit just north of Second Avenue, reopening Roosevelt Boulevard to through traffic and removing one more weak point from a corridor that matters in an emergency as much as it does on an ordinary commute.

The $4.3 million job was paid for with a federal Transportation Block Grant administered by the Oregon Department of Transportation, with some local money added in. City staff framed the project as a resilience upgrade, not just a traffic job: after a major earthquake, the bridge needs to stay functional enough for emergency responders, delivery vehicles and residents trying to get in or out.

Work began in March 2025, then slowed after crews needed additional permits to access Union Pacific property below the bridge. The city said construction resumed in earnest in fall 2025 and finished this spring with restriping of the street surface. The original schedule had called for a fall 2024 start and a fall 2025 completion.

The Chambers Street scope included concrete fin walls behind the abutments, refurbishment and reinstallation of the illumination system to current standards, asphalt paving at the abutments and replacement of ADA curb ramps at Chambers Street and Roosevelt Boulevard. In October 2025, Public Works said it had added a $100,000 contingency fund and did not expect a major increase in the total cost despite the Union Pacific delay.

The Chambers Street finish follows another Eugene retrofit already completed on Bailey Hill Road, where the bridge over Amazon Creek near West 11th Avenue reopened after work that ran from June 16 through the end of August 2025. That project closed Bailey Hill Road between 18th Avenue and 11th Avenue to through traffic, sent automobiles to Oak Patch Road and kept local access in place, while pedestrians and cyclists were not detoured. City materials said the Bailey Hill work was designed to help preserve emergency access to the West Eugene and Churchill neighborhoods after a major quake.

Eugene’s next seismic bridge priority is Goodpasture Island Road over Delta Highway. City materials identify that crossing as bridge No. 09359, built in 1964, and say the retrofit plan grew out of a May 2020 Type, Size and Location report under the federally funded Seismic Bridges project. The current request for proposals calls for engineering work through permitting, final design and construction bidding, with final PS&E deliverables due June 25, 2027.

Taken together, the projects show Eugene tightening up a small number of critical crossings one at a time, with Chambers Street now back in service and two more major routes still part of the city’s earthquake-readiness checklist.