Despite that last weekend was the opening for the movie “Spiderman 3,” it is not a promotional stunt that has had climbers crawling all over two bridges in Hood River County.

The firm of Burgess and Niple is doing a routine inspection of bridges for the ports of Hood River and Cascade Locks. While the firm has climbed the Hood River Bridge before, it’s the first time it has taken a look at the Bridge of the Gods in Cascade Locks.

The crew finished inspecting the Hood River Bridge on May 1 and began in Cascade Locks on May 2. Each inspection takes about a week to complete.

Sunlight glinted Monday afternoon off the Bridge of the Gods as team leader Nick Cioffredi descended with his five-man crew. The climbers appear to be made up of a jumble of ropes, vests, and safety equipment. They made better progress Monday than last week because of the weather. Rain and some hail Wednesday through Friday chased the climbers off the structure for awhile.

The teams are doing a fracture critical inspection for both bridges, which is required every six years. Linda Shames manages the bridge for the Port of Hood River.

“Every critical member on the bridge they have to look at within arm’s length,” she said. “A critical member is any part that if it were affected would stop operation on it.”

The inspections bring another new twist as this year the state picks up the tab, at a cost of $45,000 for Cascade Locks and $100,000 for Hood River. The ports paid before now to have their regular inspections done.

Pat Albaugh manages the Bridge of the Gods for the Port of Cascade Locks. He said the savings for the port makes a definite difference in its operating budget and being able to do additional projects.

The savings come as part of a new federal regulation that states take responsibility for all bridge inspections within their boundaries. While the state had always inspected public bridges, they had not had the responsibility before for privately owned ones.

Structural engineer Gary Bowling, of the Oregon Department of Transportation, said the inspections look at both capacity and function to determine a load rating.

He said that figure is used to calculate a sufficiency rating, which the agency can use to get federal appropriations for Oregon to offset the cost of its new task.

The mandate from the National Bridge Inspection Standard applies to all bridges, 20 feet or longer, on a public road.

The Hood River Bridge opened in 1924 and now has an average daily traffic count of 8,500 vehicles. The Bridge of the Gods opened in 1926 but was bought by the Port of Cascade Locks in 1962. Its average daily traffic count is just over 3,250 vehicles.