Sellwood Bridge work

A construction crew works on the west end Portland's Sellwood Bridge.

(Randy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian)

Crews working to build the new Sellwood Bridge are more than 40 percent done with the project, but the average citizen wouldn't know it by looking at the construction site.

Much of the work done so far has taken place underwater. Now that crews have wrapped up in-water work for the winter, bridge watchers will soon begin to see visible progress above ground.

They'll also notice continued traffic snags on the bridge's west side, where crews are conducting some complicated rerouting to allow traffic to pass over the bridge and between downtown Portland and Lake Oswego on Oregon 43.

So far, crews have completed about $92 million-worth of construction on the $307.5 million project. They're within budget and on schedule, despite a couple of days of halted work due to frigid weather.

"They use a lot of water in these activities, and when its 15 degrees out, that doesn't work so well," said Mike Baker, a representative for David Evans and Associates, the county's consultants on the project.

If work continues to go according to plan, the project will start resembling a bridge sometime in February, when the first horizontal beams are installed near the riverbanks.

Other highlights:

-Project managers have acquired 53 of 54 properties the county must buy to complete the bridge.

-A small pipe culvert that trickles stream water into the Willamette's West side has been replaced with a large concrete culvert, allowing water to flow more freely. Within a day after the culvert was finished, fish began returning to the stream.

-Of 179 subcontracts awarded for work on the bridge, 99 have gone to companies owned by minorities, women, or people with disabilities.

-To date, 14 percent of money spent on contracts has gone to minorities, women, or people with disabilities, a number that is inching toward project leaders' goal of 20 percent.

--Kelly House