Sellwood Bridge Construction (Slideshow 8)

Throughout October and November, work progressed very quickly at the Sellwood Bridge, and now the future location of the temporary bridge is unmistakable.  Slideshow #8, viewable at this link, includes some photos from last November, to compare how the landscape - the river banks and the river itself - changed since construction began.  As always, for more information about the Sellwood Bridge project, check out www.sellwoodbridge.org.

Sellwood Bridge Construction (Slideshow 7)

Don't let these sparse-looking photos fool you - a tremendous amount of work has been underway at the Sellwood Bridge during the past couple months of great weather.  New piers, significant work below the surface at the west end of the bridge, and even the beginnings of a third bridge have kept Slayden and Sundt and their many sub-contractors very busy.  Click on this link to go to the 7th slideshow in my series.  It refers to some topics covered in prior slideshows, which you can find by scrolling down this page or looking through the blog archive on the right.

Sellwood Bridge Construction (Slideshow 6)

Work continued at a fast pace at the Sellwood Bridge during July and early August 2012, as shown in Slideshow 6, viewable on youtube at this link.  A significant amount of the work is focused on underground structures, necessary in supporting the piers of the temporary bridge now being built, and necessary in reducing the effects of the slow landslide at the west end of the bridge.  A couple of residential buildings were removed at the east end of the bridge.  The river piers are now all at just about at the right height to receive the parts of the old bridge which will be shifted over to create the temporary bridge.  Kudos to the work crews for withstanding the high temperatures this August - they're out there working in the sun, wearing hardhats, long pants, safety vests, heavy tool-belts, etc.!

Sellwood Bridge Construction (Slideshow 5)

Things started to get really busy again at the Sellwood Bridge during June, as you'll see in Slideshow 5, viewable on YouTube at this link.  It's interesting to think of how much of the work will not be visible once the whole project is finished: a significant amount of work is being done underground to stabilize the land on which the bridge (and connections to nearby roadways) will be built.  Evidently this would have to be done even if the bridge had been built up- or down-river of its present location.  Another interesting thing to realize, when you go across the old bridge, is that people are working on narrow plywood platforms just below the road surface.  You can see the work platforms near the tops of the existing bridge piers, where crews are drilling holes through the piers - watch the slideshow to find out why!

Sellwood Bridge Construction (Slideshow 4)

Things are still somewhat slow at the Sellwood Bridge construction site, primarily because permit applications for the project are being reviewed.  But I got over there a couple of times in the past month and put together a somewhat shorter slideshow, viewable at this youtube link.
What amazed me this month, more than the construction project itself, was how green the surrounding area has become since the last time I was out there.  The mix of bright green leafy trees among the darker green evergreens in the hills on the west side was beautiful.
Another thing that I found fascinating this past month was that descendants of the former tribal inhabitants of the Willamette Valley were invited to harvest trees in the project area as part of the overall tree removal necessary for building the new bridge.  More coverage of that story is available here: Indian Country Today Media Network.

Sellwood Bridge Construction (Slideshow 3)

February and March were not the best months for outdoor photography, given the frequent gray skies - but then there weren't a lot of large, visible changes to photograph at the Sellwood Bridge during those months.  This slideshow (click on link below) highlights some of the work done during that time, and it includes comments from Mike Pullen, of the Multnomah County Communications Office.  He describes some of the complex permitting process for this project, and explains some of the difficulties encountered while driving piles earlier this year.

This link  Link to Slideshow  will take you to youtube.com to view the slideshow, and there you'll see links to other Sellwood Bridge slideshows that I posted earlier this year.

Sound Engineering Principles, Lesson 2

"Sound engineering principles" could be a reference to my civil engineering background, but here I'm actually talking about "sound engineering", that is, working with audio recordings.  In Lesson 2 here, check out an example of adding noise to a recording.

Why add extra noise to a recording?

If  you're in a noisy environment and the noise suddenly stops, you notice, usually with a sigh of relief.  If you record a person speaking in a noisy environment, which may be unavoidable, you have to find a way to make the background noise continuous when you edit that recording.  This lesson provides a sample of such a situation.  Click on the gray link below to listen.

Link to Audio Sample

Free History Lesson

The other day my friend and I were taking a day trip around the Columbia Gorge, and by chance, we stumbled across a collection of antique construction and logging equipment.  Yay!  It was sunny and I had my camera along - the perfect opportunity to 'geek out' and take all sorts of equipment photos.  I don't think any of these machines will ever grade another roadway or haul another log, but it was fascinating to find them all.

Sellwood Bridge Construction, Feb. 2012 (Slideshow)

Here are some photos from my first slideshow about the construction going on below the old Sellwood Bridge.  Click on this LINK to see the whole slideshow.  (It will open in youtube on another webpage.)  The slideshow includes photos taken in late January and early February 2012, and it explains some of what's at the site and what's being built.  If you see (or hear) any errors or omissions, please contact me at kiwestphalen@hotmail.com.  A big thank you to Mike Pullen, of the Multnomah County Communications Office, for answering all of my questions on a recent site tour.

View from the Bridge

General contractors Slayden and Sundt have been on-site and construction has been underway for a couple of months now at the Sellwood Bridge. Here's a photo from this morning, Thursday Jan. 26th, taken from the bridge looking down at the barge which sits near the west side of the Willamette River.  The huge crane on the barge was being used to shift a pile of the wooden structures that are used to create walkways among the tall brown pipes standing in the water.  In this photo, a worker guides one of the walkway pieces as the crane lowers it onto a pile of several more pieces.

Sellwood Bridge Before Re-Construction (Slideshow)

These are several photos from my slideshow on the history of the Sellwood Bridge.  Click on this LINK to see the whole slideshow, photographed just before the construction crews arrived in December 2011.  (It will open in youtube on another webpage.)  The slideshow includes narration by Sharon Wood Wortman, Portland's Bridge Lady and author of The Portland Bridge Book.  (Click here for Sharon's website.)

Sound Engineering Principles, Lesson 1

"Sound engineering principles" could be a reference to my civil engineering background, but here I'm actually talking about "sound engineering", that is, working with audio recordings.  In Lesson 1 here, check out an example of audio editing, and what a difference it makes in a recording of an interview.

What is Audio Editing?

Let's face it, a lot of people say a lot of stuff that you're not interested in.  Let me re-phrase that.  If you're taking the time to listen to a recording of someone speaking, you want to hear the most natural-sounding, yet clear and concise version possible, of what they have to say.  So if someone naturally tends to say "um" and "ah" frequently, how do you get a recording of that person's voice to sound clear and concise?  Audio editing, of course.  Load a digital recording into an audio editing program and cut out the parts that you don't want to hear.

Click on the (very light gray) link below to listen to a short example from a life history interview that I recorded.  Prior to editing, you'll hear how the speaker often says "um".  When I edited the recording, I removed a lot of that.  Notice how that makes the segment much easier to listen to.

Link to Audio Editing Example

Out In the Cold

The day I took this photo, it was about 10 degrees outside, in January of 2007, in Westwood, MA.  I had just started a monthly contract with S.P.S. New England, Inc. taking construction documentation photos for a highway interchange project.  I hardly noticed the cold weather that day because I was out doing something I enjoy - taking pictures of machines, dirt, concrete structures, bright orange barrels, etc.  And I actually enjoyed the challenge of trying to find the required number of photos on-site, considering there wasn't a lot to see right at the beginning of the project.

A Long History of Photographing Bridges

For years I've been fascinated by construction sights and bridges, and I do mean construction "sights" because that's been a frequent subject of my photography.  I'm originally from Massachusetts, where I spent a lot of time in the city of Lowell.  The Merrimack River flows through Lowell, and six bridges cross it.  This is a photo of the walkway on the Rourke Bridge, also sometimes referred to as "the temporary bridge".  It's been around since the 1980's - not so temporary after all. 


In 2008, I received a Cultural Grant from the city of Lowell for a project called Lowell Bridges, for which I photographed the six Merrimack River bridges and coordinated a design assignment for a drafting class at nearby Tyngsborough Regional Technical High School.  My efforts culminated in a photo show at a National Park facility in Lowell, where I also exhibited the plan drawings created by the high school class.  This isn't one of the shots from that show, but it is one of my favorites of this particular bridge.