Boone Bridge (Oregon)

Boone Bridge
West side of the bridge from the north bank
Coordinates	45°17′30″N 122°46′10″W / 45.291766°N 122.76932°W / 45.291766; -122.76932Coordinates: 45°17′30″N 122°46′10″W / 45.291766°N 122.76932°W / 45.291766; -122.76932
Carries	I-5
Crosses	Willamette River
Locale	Wilsonville, Oregon
Maintained by	Oregon Department of Transportation
Characteristics
Design	steel girder floorbeam system
Total length	1,111 feet (339 m)
Width	116 feet (35 m)
Clearance below	75 feet (23 m)
History
Opened	1954

Boone Bridge is a steel girder highway bridge over the Willamette River at Wilsonville, Oregon, in the United States. Built in 1954, it crosses the river to the Charbonneau section of Wilsonville, carrying Interstate 5 into the open Willamette Valley from the Portland metropolitan area. Maintained by the Oregon Department of Transportation, the 1,111 feet (339 m) long bridge has three travel lanes in each direction. To the west is the site of the former Boone's Ferry, which the bridge replaced.

Alphonso Boone (grandson of Daniel Boone) and his son Jesse Boone started the Boone's Ferry over the Newberg Pool stretch of the Willamette River in 1847. They also cleared timber and constructed a road south towards Salem and north towards Portland, creating the first overland connection from Salem to the northern section of the Willamette Valley. A railroad bridge was constructed just upriver in 1907 and was used for the Oregon Electric Railway.

In 1953, Oregon began construction of a highway bridge just east of the ferry landings to carry what became Interstate 5. The four-lane, north-south aligned bridge was finished in 1954 and opened to traffic in July, with the ferry ending service at that time. The state named the bridge Boone Bridge in honor of the Boone family. At the time there was a bronze marker in one of the bridge’s piers to commemorate the name, but it was removed when the bridge was later widened.

The state widened Boone Bridge from its original four lanes of traffic to a total of six lanes in 1970, with three lanes in each direction. On April 1, 1995, the bridge was re-dedicated as the Boone Bridge and a sign added to the bridge along with a plaque at the nearby rest area to honor the earlier ferry. From 1998 to 1999 the bridge was retrofitted with steel cables and a new roadway in order to prepare the bridge for earthquakes at a cost of $4 million. In May 1999, a ten car accident on the bridge backed up traffic for nine hours. The fatal crash led to a temporary reduction in the speed limit. By 2008, the bridge carried in excess of 131,300 cars per day.