A group of 15 motorists are suing the state and a contractor over a crash-prone highway ramp in Tigard that was blamed for a spate of wrecks in 2014.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleges negligent design and construction of a highway ramp connecting northbound Interstate 5 to Oregon 217, and seeks $2.03 million in damages from the Oregon Department of Transportation and Nebraska-based contractor Kiewit Corp.

The ramp was the site of some 37 serious crashes between 2008 and 2012. Later, a series of crashes within a span of weeks in spring 2014 brought it into the spotlight.

The lawsuit alleges that a metal joint embedded in the ramp had come out of alignment, creating an uneven surface that was dangerous to passing vehicles. The joint is intended to allow the bridge to expand and contract in warmer and cooler temperatures.

Each of the plaintiffs describe suffering injuries while driving or riding as a passenger in a vehicle that crashed while driving on the flyover ramp in May or June of 2014.

"The Highway 217 on-ramp was putting people at risk every day," Mark McDougal, a Portland attorney whose firm is representing the motorists, said in a statement. "ODOT spends millions of dollars on safety advertising, and yet does nothing when a dangerous condition they control stares them in the face. Accident after accident occurred in exactly the same place, and ODOT did nothing."

The Oregon Department of Transportation, too, pointed to the expansion joint in May 2014. It had in 2004 attempted to even out the road surface in by grinding down parts of the joint that were out of place.

But after an inspection of the joint and other bridge structures that year, department officials told The Oregonian/OregonLive it was within safe specifications. Instead, they said drivers were likely traveling too fast to negotiate the curve. The speed limit is 35 mph.

Transportation department spokesman Don Hamilton declined to discuss the specifics of the lawsuit, but he said work crews had refinished the road in 2014 to increase traction and had seen "very few problems" since then.

"This tells us that people have become comfortable going faster than the posted speed limit on that bridge," Hamilton said. "As the road surface deteriorated ... soon that road surface wasn't able to handle those faster speeds."

The Oregonian previously reported that Kiewit had received a $560,000 bonus for finishing the ramp ahead of schedule in 2001. Kiewit officials said at the time they stood behind the project, and the company couldn't immediately be reached Monday.

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com

503-294-5034

@enjus