The City of Tigard (COT) has announced plans to close a gap in the Fanno Creek Trail located about 10 miles south of downtown Portland along Highway 99.
(Photo from COT leaflet)
Two new sections of trail — from Grant Avenue at the northwest end and Main Street at the southeast end — will connect with an existing section of trail behind the George Morlan Plumbing building. Along with construction of the new trail sections, the city is planning to clean up and revitalize the existing trail.
You’re probably as surprised as I was to hear about a section of the Fanno Creek Trail just north of Highway 99.
This section of trail is a mystery to many people because it doesn’t connect to other areas of the trail and much of it is buried under invasive vegetation. In addition to cleaning up the existing pavement the city will remove invasive species of plants around the trail and replace them with native vegetation.
The new trail will also utilize an existing corridor under Highway 99. Routing the new trail through the underpass will allow people to walk and ride between downtown Tigard and the northern section of the Fanno Creek Trail without needing to cross five lanes of motor vehicle traffic.
The underpass can already be used to cross under Highway 99 but at present the path is unmarked, unevenly paved, and poorly lit at night.
Many residents I’ve spoken with were unaware that it exists and most who were aware of it said they preferred to cross over the highway instead of walk or ride through the current underpass.
Once completed, the new trail and refurbished underpass will connect to where the city is planning a raised crosswalk as part of their Main Street revitalization project. (To learn more about that project, take a look at our story on the future of downtown Tigard.)
Construction on the new section of the trail is expected to begin in July and will continue through October. To get more information you can visit Tigard’s trails page or contact Jeff Peck at jeffp [at] tigard-or [dot] gov.
— Follow all our Washington County bike news here. Contact Will Vanlue, will [at] bikeportland [dot] org with tips and feedback.
Great to see work on this done. I guess I’m one of the few that was aware of this section of trail but it was always and adventure to ride through. A few mornings my high intensity bicycle lights would shine on a few people sleeping under the bridge. I never felt unsafe but wasn’t willing to recommend it either. Thanks or fixing this Tigard!
After an article here about this trail a couple of weeks ago, I went over and rode the trail. The weather was bad, but the trail is great. Maybe not so much for commuters, but it is an excellent way to get peole out to experience bik-ing on a seprated path from traffic. This new section will make it that much better.
I’m pretty sure they labelled that backwards based on what I’ve seen on the ground…
That is a shady spot, have to slow way down there.
About right where that pic was taken from is a truck of what I always assume is a homeless man. Sometimes he has his dog tied to the truck while he is sleeping in the front cab. One time the dog was sitting on the path and would not move while he was going grrr.
anyway, all for this area being cleaned up and brought more up to the par of the northern section of the fanno trail.
Ok… where’s the mysterious piece of paved trail to nowhere? I’ve ridden through that underpass a number of times, and the only thing I’ve found was the asphalt “trail” (that is in seriously poor condition) that leads to the George Moreland Plumbing store. I’ve even pruned some of the blackberries there on occasion (back when I worked in Tigard).