Oregon’s $52.7M Jetty Repair Project Features Customized Excavator
Lori Tobias
The town of Tillamook, Ore., is perhaps best known for its famous cheese, but around construction sites these days, it’s known for the excavator at work on the $52.7 million Tillamook South Jetty repair project. The customized excavator is believed to be one of just two in the world.
“They’re unlike any excavators anywhere in the world,” said Colter Bennett, lead engineer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Portland District. “The contractor is likely to use a Cat 6020. That’s a large excavator, classified as a hydraulic shovel.
The contractor then gets the full front end — meaning the boom, the stick, the bucket and the thumb — customdesigned to have a longer reach capacity than the default
configuration. They weigh about 560,000 lbs. and cost about $5 to $6 million. I’m sure there are hundreds of Cat 6020s in default configuration, but configured this way, they’re only two and they’re both in Oregon.”
The Tillamook South Jetty is about 50 miles south of the Columbia River and one of two jetties at the entrance of the Tillamook Bay leading to the Pacific Ocean. The north jetty was built in 1914; the south jetty was built more than 50 years later, with work beginning in 1969. It was finished at its full length of 8,025 ft. in 1979.
A jetty is designed to smooth the water at the bay entrance and to push river sediment into deeper water so it is easier and safer for boats to navigate. A jetty has a root — the place where it is tied to the land on at least one side; the trunk, where there is water on both sides; and the head, the large feature on the terminus of the jetty.
see JETTY page 8
The CAT 6020 repairs a jetty.
WSDOT Awards Third SR 167 Contract
The future 6-mi. State Route 167 Expressway in north Pierce County is one step closer to completion as the Washington State Department of Transportation awarded the third of four contracts to build the tolled expressway.
The contract was awarded to Guy F. Atkinson Inc. on Aug. 29, 2024, for $177.7 million, $8.7 million below the WSDOT engineering estimate. This is the third SR 167 project contract awarded to Atkinson.
for us on previous stages of construction,” Puget Sound Gateway Program Administrator John White said. “We look forward to continuing to work together to build the new expressway and multi-modal improvements that will provide all travelers with more options.”
includes:
• A new diverging diamond interchange at SR 161/North Meridian Avenue
• A new bridge over SR 161/North Meridian Avenue
• A new bridge over Milwaukee Avenue East
• Construction of a portion of the 12mile spuyaləpabš Trail (formerly known as the Tacoma to Puyallup Regional Trail).
A rendering of the new SR 167/I-5 interchange to be built in place of the now-closed 70th Avenue East Bridge in Fife, Wash. see SR 167 page 4
“Atkinson has been a great partner
In the third phase, Atkinson crews will widen SR 167 from SR 161/North Meridian Avenue in Puyallup to SR 410 near Sumner. Construction is set to begin in 2025 and finish in 2027. Work
Contract for $177.7M Covers Expressway’s Third Phase
• Demolishing the old Puyallup River steel truss bridge and preserving a portion of it as a heritage marker along the spuyaləpabš Trail
• New ramp meters at the East Pioneer onramps to SR 512
Work also includes building a portion of the embankment for the last section of the expressway that will be built in the fourth and final stage. The SR 167 Completion Project is part of WSDOT’s Puget Sound Gateway Program, which includes the SR 509 Completion Project in southern King County. Combined, the two completion projects finish critical missing links in Washington’s highway and freight network.
Final Stage to Come
The fourth stage will build the remaining 2.6 mi. of the expressway from I-5 in Fife to SR 161/North Meridian Avenue. Besides widening, this stage completes several multi-modal components, including trail connections. It also reconfigures local roads and intersections, builds eight new bridges and restores approximately 90 acres of wetlands.
WSDOT plans to award the last construction contract for the SR 167 Completion Project in the summer of 2025. This stage is scheduled to wrap up in 2029.
Work Completed, Ongoing
The first stage of construction built the Wapato Way East bridge over I-5 at the Fife curve. The bridge opened to traffic in 2021. The second major stage began construction in 2022. Crews are building a 3-mi. expressway section between I-5 and SR 509 near the Port of Tacoma. This stage includes 20 new bridges; new on-and off-ramps to connect I-5 and SR 167; and a significant wetland and creek restoration program. This stage should be completed in 2026.
(Photos courtesy of Washington DOT.)
SR 167 from page 1
The Wapato Way East/SR 99 roundabout.
The new Wapato Way East bridge nears completion.
The SR 167 Completion Project in Fife, Wash., includes unique, large mitigation work called a riparian restoration program to restore wildlife and improve aquatic habitat and water.
Construction crews placed girders over 12th Street East in Fife, Wash., to support a bridge being built as part of the new SR 167 Expressway between the highway's current end near Puyallup to SR 509 in Tacoma.
Crews on the SR 167 Completion Project in Pierce County, Wash., set girders for a new bridge over 54th Avenue East.
Crews on the SR 167 Completion Project in Pierce County place the first layers of asphalt on the new SR 167 expressway as they pave the section between 12th Street East and SR 99 in Fife, Wash.
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FALCON WINCH ASSIST
FALCON GRAPPLE CLAW
Excavator Believed to Be One of Only Two Worldwide
“What our designers do is they use wave data, usually gathered by buoy data close to the jetty, and they basically plug that data into a wave theory equation that then can get converted to force,” Bennett said. “They take all that data that’s getting gathered by buoy data, and they throw that in and say, ‘OK, in a large wave event, how much force does a stone in a specific location need to endure? And so, the force gets converted to mass, and then that tells us how large a stone needs to be sized.”
Since the south jetty was completed, it has received no repairs despite having sustained damage and lost jetty length, according to the USACE.
“A recent apparent increase in the Pacific Ocean wave climate has exposed both jetties to more extreme storm waves, especially the south jetty, which is more exposed to southwesterly storm events,” the USACE said. “The south jetty’s head is destroyed, and the trunk continues to be damaged and lose length.
“Repairs to the south jetty head and trunk are needed to address existing damage caused by an increased wave climate to restore the structural integrity of the jetty, provide additional protection for the north jetty from large southerly waves, reduce navigational hazards to boaters, and ensure safe and reliable passage to commercial fishing boats.”
The repair work is done by placing “stones” of varying densities ranging in size from two tons to about 43 tons — the latter about the size of a Volkswagen van.
“The stone size on the South Jetty are the largest stones that can really safely be transported over the road,” Bennett said. “They have to be brought from the quarry and then put onto a barge and delivered by barge to our project. It’s going to be on the order of 100,000 tons of stone and the average stone probably weighs about 15 tons. So, a total of 6,000 to 7,000 stones.”
Small stones can be placed with excavators “uncommonly large but tend to have a custom front end — bucket, boom, stick — all custom config-
ured,” Bennett said. The customized Cat 6020 comes in on the jetty head.
“The equipment is unique in the sense that it has a lot of power with a lot of reach,” Bennett said. “It's essentially taking the capability of a crane and putting it into an excavator. And the reason we like to do that is because cranes can only pull everything once. A crane puts a stone down in place, they can’t really manipulate it again.
“And what we’re trying to do at the jetty all the time is maximize stone-to-stone contact, maximize the lock. So, when you’re placing a 40-ton stone, you put it down with a crane and you can’t pick it back up and move it. You can't nudge it over two inches or a foot to touch its neighbor. What the excavator can do is push and pull the stone. That’s the unique capability of these machines.”
A two-man team — an operator and a spotter— works with the Cat 6020. The operator places the stone while the spotter makes sure it is placed in the optimum spot.
“We’ve got a very specific way we like to lay the stones in all the districts,” Bennett said. “We’ve been managing the jetties for over 50 years, so we know what works and what doesn’t. When the jetty’s finished, people are always amazed that there are such even lines. They’re really supposed to be kind of a flat horizontal crest and two gentle slopes on both sides.
“If you look down the side of a newly finished jetty, you’ll be amazed at how clean those lines are. It’s because that equipment has GPS built into it. They are building the lines and grade that are designed.”
The project is set for completion in October 2025.
(Photos courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)
JETTY from page 1
A Komatsu excavator is ready to work at the Tillamook South Jetty repair project.
The unique Cat 6020 excavator (shown in action on Tillamook South Jetty repairs) will be an essential part of the North Jetty project.
Another shot of the rare Cat excavator.
One of the stones to be set in place to repair the jetty.
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U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced on Sept. 5 $12,520,308 in grants for Oregon as part of $1 billion in grants through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program.
The funding will go directly to 354 local, regional and tribal communities across the country, including five in Oregon, to improve roadway safety and prevent deaths and serious injuries on America’s rural and urban roads, including some of the most dangerous in the country.
The announcement is paired with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s release of its early estimates of traffic fatalities for the first half of 2024, estimating that traffic fatalities declined for the ninth straight quarter. An estimated 18,720 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes, a decrease of about 3.2 percent as compared to 19,330 fatalities projected to have occurred in the first half of 2023.
“Through new funding programs like Safe Streets and Roads for All, the Biden-Harris administration is helping communities of all sizes make their roadways safer for everyone who uses them,” Buttigieg said. “We should be energized by the fact that together we’ve
reduced traffic fatalities for more than two years in a row now — but so much work remains to fully address the crisis on our roads.”
The Safe Streets and Roads for All program provides grants directly to communities for implementation, planning, and demonstration projects aimed at preventing deaths and serious injuries on the nation’s roadways. Since launching in 2022, SS4A has funded projects in more than 1,400 com-
munities, supporting roadway safety for nearly 75 percent of the United States population.
Additionally, SS4A is making historic investments in rural and underserved communities, and many of this year’s awards will address critical safety hot spots on some of the country’s most dangerous roads. The projects and activities aim to improve safety for all roadway users, including drivers, passengers, pedestrians and students heading
USDOT Announces $12.5M for Oregon Road Safety Work
back to school, bicyclists, transit users, and people with disabilities.
The city of Portland was awarded $9.6 million for the Safe Systems on 82nd Ave: State Highway to Civic Corridor project for safety improvements on a seven-mile segment of 82nd Avenue, a five-lane arterial on the regional high-injury network. This project will close critical crossing gaps, deploy proven tools to address high-crash locations and improve safety and equity for one of Portland’s most important high-crash corridors.
Project components include installing raised center medians, a pedestrian signal, full traffic signals, “no turn on red” at major traffic signal intersections and updating signal timing, as well as funding a safety education and marketing campaign.
The city of Klamath Falls was awarded $2 million for the City of Klamath Falls Intersection Safety Countermeasures for Transportation Disadvantaged Populations project to design and construct safety improvements at five intersections where fatal or serious injury crashes were recorded.
Oregon also received $920,308 for three safety planning and demonstration projects. (Photo courtesy of Finetooth-Own work, CCBY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.)
Northeast 82nd Avenue Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) light-rail station in Portland, Ore. The steps lead to a pedestrian overpass.
