The Richard Odabashian Bridge, formerly the Olds Station Bridge, is a

box girder bridge A box girder bridge, or box section bridge, is a bridge in which the main beam (structure), beams comprise girders in the shape of a hollow box. The box girder normally comprises prestressed concrete, structural steel, or a composite ma ...

crossing the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

Wenatchee, Washington Wenatchee ( ) is the county seat and most populous city of Chelan County, Washington, Chelan County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The population within the city limits in 2010 was 31,925, and has increased to 35,508 as of 2020. ...

, United States. It carries four lanes of U.S. Route 2 (US 2) and US 97, as well as a bicycle and pedestrian pathway that is part of the

Apple Capital Recreation Loop Trail The Apple Capital Recreation Loop Trail is an urban bicycle and pedestrian trail in Wenatchee, Washington, United States. It follows the west and east shores of the Columbia River for and was completed in 1995. Route The trail runs clockwise ...

. The bridge opened in 1975 and is located north of downtown Wenatchee at Olds Station.

History

A bridge crossing the Columbia River in Sunnyslope north of Wenatchee had been proposed since the 1960s to bypass a section of US 2 through downtown Wenatchee that crossed the Columbia River on the Senator George Sellar Bridge. Early proposals favored a bridge at either

Walla Walla Point In United States, American radio, film, television, and video games, walla is a sound effect imitating the murmur of a crowd in the background. A group of actors brought together in the post-production stage of film production to create this murm ...

in northern Wenatchee or Olds Station on the north side of the Wenatchee River; the latter option won out. Construction began in 1971 and was completed in 1975, including a narrow bicycle/pedestrian trail and two highway lanes, which were later expanded to four. The bridge was dedicated by 300 people, including local mayors and state highway officials, on September 5, 1975. US 2 was re-routed onto the bridge and the old alignment later became State Route 285. The bridge was renamed in May 1991 for Richard Odabashian, a state transportation commissioner from Cashmere. The pedestrian trail on the bridge was originally wide until it was expanded to in 2001, to eliminate a major

bottleneck Bottleneck may refer to: * the narrowed portion (neck) of a bottle Science and technology * Bottleneck (engineering), where the performance of an entire system is limited by a single component * Bottleneck (network), in a communication network * ...

on the Apple Capital Recreation Loop Trail and allow bicycles to pass.

References

Box girder bridges in the United States Bridges completed in 1975 Bridges in Chelan County, Washington Bridges in Douglas County, Washington Bridges over the Columbia River Road bridges in Washington (state) U.S. Route 2 Bridges of the United States Numbered Highway System 1975 establishments in Washington (state) Concrete bridges in the United States U.S. Route 97 {{Washington-bridge-struct-stub