Two years of work to repair and upgrade Portland's Burnside Bridge has reached the final few weeks of projects, complete with a new traffic layout and construction that included upgrades to the bridge's surface, structure, mechanical and electrical functions.

When a train derailment damaged columns supporting the North Going Street Bridge in Portland on Sept. 7, the uncertainty around the lone public connection to Swan Island, which houses about 200 industrial businesses and more than 12,000 jobs, including the ample freight operations of Daimler, UPS and FedEx, left the future of the fixes in doubt.

Sound Transit is extending its line north, south, east and west with the goal of connecting the entirety of the Puget Sound through light rail track. The Downtown Redmond Link Extension serves as the next step in that expansion.

With multiple mega-projects virtually all wrapped up in Seattle, a $724 million project to rebuild the city's central waterfront starts to take a more prominent role in the future of Seattle construction and transportation.

The constant political back-and-forth in British Columbia, Canada, over how to deal with an aging George Massey Tunnel has ping-ponged from uncertainty to a $3.5 billion, 10-lane bridge, back to uncertainty, to no bridge and now to an eight-lane submerged tunnel.

Amidst the constraints of weight limits, a seawall, a waterfront restaurant and high-voltage power poles, crews from ICI Interwest Construction Inc. and heavy mover Oxbo Mega Transport Solutions positioned a $20 million, 282-ft-long pedestrian and utility bridge in place this fall along the Everett, Washington, waterfront.

Soon, the concourse discussion at Portland International Airport will start with the letter B.

The $52 million contract the Seattle Dept. of Transportation had to purchase 10 new streetcars for a planned Center City Connector line hit the brakes this month, even while the department says they plan to continue with the delayed project.

In a situation few cities find themselves in, Vancouver, B.C., is exploring how to best use the extra vehicle capacity on the 1954-opened Granville Bridge.

Sound Transit's continued expansion both in and around the Seattle area continues as it pushes north toward Snohomish County for the first time.