Source: Oregonian (Portland, OR), March 6, 2015
By: Tony Hernandez
Multnomah County taxpayers will recoup the money spent on the Morrison Bridge decking that fell apart shortly after it was installed, a jury decided Friday.
Jurors, after an 11-day trial, awarded the county $4.4 million in its lawsuit against the contractor and subcontractors.
At the same time, the jury said the county shares some of the blame. Jurors found the county suffered $5.6 million in damages but that it was responsible for 22 percent of the negligence. The jury reduced the county’s award by that percentage.
Supplier ZellComp Inc. of North Carolina was ordered to pay 40 percent, or $2.3 million ; engineering firm Hardesty & Hanover of New York 21 percent, or $1.2 million ; and contractor Conway Construction Co. of Washington , 17 percent, or $959,990 .
Strongwell Corp. of Virginia — the manufacturer, which county attorneys said was most at fault — won’t have to pay anything.
County Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury , in a statement, called the verdict “a great outcome for the citizens of Multnomah County .”
“We are ultimately responsible for maintaining a safe bridge for the public’s use, and we take that job seriously,” Kafoury said in the statement. “When contracting with professionals to do work for us, we have high expectations that they will perform the work they were contracted to do.”
Douglas Weigel , Conway’s attorney, said he was disappointed, but that his client accepts the verdict and will move on with its work building roads and bridges.
“I think Conway will be reluctant to use a similar type of system on any project in the future,” Weigel said.
Daniel Nichols , ZellComp’s attorney, declined to comment. Attorneys for Strongwell said only that they were pleased.
Mike Pullen , county spokesman, said the county is done trying new products such as the fiber-reinforced decking used on the Morrison. The challenge now is finding material that will weigh about the same as the bridge’s counterweight used to open the bridge.
Concrete alone is too heavy, Pullen said. The original steel grating on the 57-year-old bridge became too slippery when wet, leading to accidents, some fatal.
Pullen said Friday the county is considering using steel grating with a layer of concrete on top.
“We want to choose a material that we know will last a long time,” Pullen said. “We need to act quickly because of the deterioration of the existing deck, but we want to go with something tried and true.”