In the first quarter of 2018, the Oregon Department of Transportation began planning for the replacement of Beaver Creek Bridge. Beaver Creek Bridge is located on OR 47, Nehalem Highway, which connects US 30 north of Vernonia to US 26 at Staley Junction to the South. The existing bridge at the time was in poor condition and required regular maintenance. Because of this, the bridge was deemed beyond repair, so the decision was made to remove the entire bridge and construct a new bridge in the same location. The removal of the old bridge was to happen in July of 2018 and the construction of the new bridge was expected to be ready for traffic by that September.
In March of 2018, Portland Bolt was contacted as a source for the anchor bolts required for the bridge rail. It was imperative that the anchor bolts get put into production immediately given the small window available for the entire project to be completed. The anchor bolts specified were F1554 Grade 105 and had a forged head, which are commonly required for this application, but not many bolt manufacturers can accommodate. Portland Bolt has the ability to hot forge headed anchor bolts, which made us the obvious choice. Being that this was an ODOT project, the supplemental requirement “S4” was exercised, which requires a Charpy Impact Test to be performed Portland Bolt also hot-dip galvanizes in house, which expedited the turnaround time and got the completed parts to the job site as required.