47 NOVEMBER 2025 WorldWide Drilling Resource® See us at Booth 2831 Groundwater Week 2025 in New Orleans Soil Sampling for Bridge Replacement Project Adapted from Information by Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority A new bridge is set to enhance local economies and create more livable communities in Hood River, Oregon. The innovative design will tackle various challenges related to river navigation, vehicular traffic, pedestrian and bicycle access, transit connections, as well as overall safety. The total estimated cost for the bridge is just over $1 billion, with a funding strategy that includes contributions from federal, state, and local sources. The proposed structure is a modern, expansive concrete bridge featuring two 12-foot lanes with four-foot shoulders in each direction. Additionally, it will offer a dedicated 12-foot pathway for walking and biking. The bridge will be engineered to support anticipated heavy loads and will enforce a speed limit of 45 miles per hour to ensure a smooth integration with the existing interchanges on both sides of the river. Crucial soil testing is underway, which is a vital part of the preliminary work required for the new Hood River-White Salmon Bridge design. Engineers with Geotechnical Resources, Inc. (GRI) are drilling soil samples along the proposed bridge route, located just west of the current bridge. The drilling teams are operating from a barge and will bore down 30 to 160 feet below the riverbed at ten different locations, gathering over 100 soil samples along with approximately 450 feet of rock core samples. GRI will analyze these samples to assess important engineering properties such as moisture content, density, and strength, which will inform the design of the bridge’s foundation system. In addition, GRI will perform advanced testing to evaluate the seismic characteristics of the soil and rock at the site, aiding the project team in modeling the bridge’s and ground’s behavior during an earthquake. This overwater drilling represents the second phase of geotechnical exploration for the bridge replacement initiative. The first phase was conducted, focusing on collecting rock and soil samples at the Port of Hood River. One additional boring will take place on land at the Washington side to gather further samples. These land-based explorations will assist in understanding the underground conditions at the bridge’s endpoints. GEOTECH
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