If you’re planning on taking the MAX in early August, this news is for you:

There’s going to be a MAX service interruption from August 2 to the 24 on the Steel Bridge.  This effects all MAX lines: blue, red & yellow.  During this time, riders will be shuttled from the Rose Quarter Transit Center to the Old Town / Chinatown Station.  The construction taking place is to connect lines & tracks to the MAX Green Line.

More information can be read here.

Plan on allowing 10 or so more minutes in your trip if you plan on taking the MAX through these stops.

Looks like a quick fix -

“The fiber optic cable on the Steel Bridge has been repaired. MAX trains are running across the bridge and MAX is expected to return to normal operations at approximately noon. Buses will continue to shuttle MAX riders between Old Town/Chinatown and Rose Quarter Transit Center stations until that time.”

Normal traffic can now use the Steel Bridge.  TriMet MAX riders will be using shuttles up until noon today when normal operations resumes.

Just saw this -

“Due to a loose wire on the Steel Bridge not related to TriMet, buses are shuttling MAX riders between Old Town/Chinatown and Rose Quarter Transit Center stations. The Steel Bridge is closed to all vehicles until the wire has been fixed. At this point there is no indication when it will be fixed.
Updated: 10:39 a.m., Mon. Jun. 9, 2008″

Yikes… keep this in mind if you’re planning on taking MAX or even driving / cycling across the Steel Bridge.  I’ll update this status when I can.

There were some problems on May 19 that left a couple of MAX trains damaged. Here’s a video of one of those trains being pushed across the Steel Bridge by a truck. While not too excited, us public transportation & TriMet geeks get a kick out of it.

PORTLANDSTRANSPORT has a good deal of TriMet MAX & bus videos on Youtube. Some are very interesting vids indeed…