New interactive kiosks teach about healthy Willamette River, Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge
October 14, 2011
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), in partnership with TriMet, has created interactive kiosks that demonstrate how the design of the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge accommodates river use while minimally impacting Willamette River habitat. The kiosks currently include two video stations: The Portland Bridge Builders and Healthy Willamette River.
The Portland Bridge Builders features three superhero engineers working together to solve bridge building challenges: river navigation, fish migration, design and pollution solutions.
Healthy Willamette River describes the importance of the river as habitat for a variety of animals, including bats, otters, salmon and humans. The interactive display quizzes OMSI visitors about each animal, and then plays a short video explaining how the animal uses the river.
The exhibit will be on display at OMSI for five to seven years. See a preview at this link: trimet.org/pm/construction/bridgeview.htm.
In 2012, a third interactive station is planned for the exhibit that would allow visitors to control the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge BridgeCam located on OMSI's roof. This is one of two BridgeCams providing live video of construction of the light rail bridge over the Willamette River. View the BridgeCam at trimet.org/pmbridgecams.
Sponsors of the exhibit include Kiewit Infrastructure West, T.Y. Lin International, Portland Spirit, HNTB, Ross Island Sand & Gravel Co., the City of Portland's Office of Healthy Working Rivers, TriMet and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
About OMSI
Founded in 1944, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is one of the nation's leading science museums, a world-class tourist attraction, and an award-winning educational resource for the kid in each of us. OMSI is located at 1945 SE Water Avenue, Portland, OR 97214. For general information, call 503.797.4000 or visit omsi.edu.
About the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge
The light rail bridge will be the first cable-stayed bridge design for the region, extending 1,720 feet (.326 miles) over the Willamette River. It is the first of its kind, carrying light rail, buses, bikes, pedestrians and a future Portland Streetcar extension, but no private vehicles. The bridge alignment is SW Porter Street on the westside and SE Sherman Street on the eastside.
About the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Project
The 7.3-mile project is the region's sixth MAX line to be built and extends from the terminus of the MAX Green and Yellow lines at Portland State University to South Waterfront, Southeast Portland, Milwaukie and Park Avenue in Clackamas County. It will create up to 14,000 jobs and generate $573 million in personal earnings. Federal funds will pay for half of the $1.49 billion project, state and local partners are funding the balance. TriMet's share is less than 5 percent of the project budget and will not be needed until 2013. The line is set to open in September 2015.