(Aug. 8, 2025) The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) will conduct expansion joint repairs and replacements on the Vista Bridge from Monday, Aug. 11 through Friday, Aug. 15, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
During construction, the bridge will be closed to all motor vehicles. Steel plates will be installed at the end of each workday to allow access for people driving motor vehicles outside of work hours.
Southbound traffic will be detoured at SW Park Place, to SW Salmon, to SW 13th Avenue to Montgomery Drive. Northbound motorists will be detoured to SW Montgomery Drive to SW 13th Avenue.
Sidewalks will remain open for pedestrians and bicyclists during work hours. Flaggers will allow access for TriMet vehicles and first responders through the work zone.
The bridge carries an estimated 11,000 vehicle trips per day.
The traveling public is advised to expect delays, travel cautiously, observe all closures and directions by flaggers, and use alternate routes if possible. Local access to residences and businesses will remain available.
As always, please keep our crews safe by following all traffic control signs and flaggers while travelling through or near work zones. Go slow when traveling on alternate routes.
The 99-year-old structure formally known as the Vista Avenue Viaduct was built in 1926 to link SW Portland neighborhoods to Washington Park and Downtown Portland. Its architecture is typical of the popular arched bridges that were built in the 1920s and 1930s. It carried the Council Crest streetcar line, which was later disbanded. A 50th anniversary party was held for the structure in 1976, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. More background is available on the the National Register Nomination Form, available online.
While some of Portland’s most iconic bridges, such as those over the Willamette River, are owned and operated by other agencies (Multnomah County, ODOT, TriMet, or railroads), PBOT owns and maintains 159 bridges citywide. Almost half of these bridges are over 50 years old, aging without enough funding to replace them.
PBOT currently has $700,000 of capital funding available per year for bridge maintenance, while the average cost of bridge replacement is $15 million. The approximate cost to bring all of our bridges into State of Good Repair (best practice for asset maintenance) is $587 million.
As bridges age, they are more prone to damage and to becoming weight restricted. Weight restrictions mean that large trucks and sometimes emergency vehicles cannot use them. This adversely affects the movement of goods, emergency response times, and community resilience. The vast majority of our bridges are also not seismically resilient and would be subject to failure during an earthquake. Moving forward, as we replace bridges, we are constructing them to be seismically resilient.
Learn more about asset management at PBOT at the Asset management at PBOT website.
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The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is the steward of the City’s transportation system, and a community partner in shaping a livable city. We plan, build, manage and maintain an effective and safe transportation system that provides access and mobility.