It's not getting any better on its own.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

It's been about six weeks since cracks started forming and chunks started falling off the busy Springwater path south of OMSI. Since then, the damage has worsened and as rain continues to fall, the Portland Parks & Recreation bureau is still a bit nervous about what might happen next.

After constant monitoring of the riverbank beneath the path by geotech engineers, Parks announced this morning that path users should expect delays on Tuesday, May 1st, as engineers take a closer look. Here's more from the official statement:

"... from the SE Ivon entrance to about mile 2. Workers, equipment and vehicles will be on site as engineers address recent riverbank erosion, caused by heavy rains and high water. Bikers and joggers please take note..."

I rolled by the damage 10 days ago and here's how it looked... (more...)

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'Cartlandia,' the food cart pod along the Springwater Corridor Trail that opened in May now boasts Portland's first-ever bike shop cart.

The Bike Rack is a full-service repair shop in a trailer, and a welcome addition to a cart pod that's adjacent to a popular bicycling route. (more...)

The lot is almost ready.
(Photos: Patrick Croasdaile)

'Cartlandia,' the bike-centric food cart pod on the Springwater Corridor Trail we told you about back in January, is about to open.

I caught up with the man behind the development (who also did the Mississippi Marketplace in North Portland), Roger Goldingay, to get an update and learn more about this exciting project.

Cartlandia is set to open on May 1st, and will have the capacity for around 35 food carts — all accessible directly from the Springwater Corridor Trail through dedicated, paved entrances along the path. (more...)

Landslide on the Springwater Trail south of
downtown Portland.
(Photo: Ben McLeod)

Heavy rains have caused a landslide that's just a few feet away from the paved Springwater on the Willamette trail. Reader Ben McLeod sent us a photo of the situation a few hours ago. McLeod tells us the slide is located just about 300-500 feet south of the Ross Island boathouse. (more...)

View of the landslide.
(Photos: Dan Kaufman)

A mutli-use path that connects SE Milwaukie Avenue to the Springwater Trail north of Sellwood is closed indefinitely due a massive landslide.

Early this morning, we received an email from a reader saying that the landslide is completely blocking the trail. "Downed trees, much debris and heavy flooding (more than usual for this section). Most of the hillside came down and there is still a danger from rolling rocks and a precarious tree... this is going to be a big cleanup job."

We notified Portland Parks and Recreation about the issue and spokesperson Beth Sorensen says they have determined that the slide it still active and they have closed the trail completely for the public's safety until further notice. (more...)

Intersection of Springwater Trail and 82nd.

Portland Monthly Mag reports that a "Bike-centric food cart super pod" is coming to the Springwater Corridor in East Portland.

According to a story on their blog, developer Roger Goldingay (the same guy that developed the cart pod on N. Skidmore and Mississippi) has set his sights on a one-acre parcel along the popular trail where it crosses SE 82nd Ave. Here's an excerpt from the story: (more...)

Riders on Cycle Wild's weekend bike camping trip out to Champoeg State Park over the weekend got a special treat as they rolled out via the Springwater Corridor Trail...

The "Holiday Express" historic steam locomotive on the Springwater Corridor Trail this weekend. The Ross Island Bridge is in the background.
(Photo © Russ Roca/PathLessPedaled.com)

(more...)

The Springwater Corridor Trail with
McClure Industries in the background.
(Photo: Howie Oakes)

A fiberglass product manufacturing facility that emits a hazardous air pollutant and is located adjacent to the Springwater Corridor Trail in Southeast Portland will be the subject of a public hearing on Wednesday. At issue is renewal of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) air pollutant permit for McClure Industries, a company that some nearby residents think needs to do more to contain the level of odors emitted from their facility.
(more...)

A project by the City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services on the 170-acre Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge that was going to close a popular section of the Springwater Corridor Trail for up to four months next summer has been postponed.

In an email to stakeholders this morning, BES staffer Anne Nelson said the project will be delayed until summer of 2012 due to "funding issues":

"While this is not our preference, it is the reality of the situation. As we are receiving a significant portion of the funding from the Army Corps of Engineers, the project must align with the Corps’ process and timeline, which is unable to align with our planned 2011 construction window."

(more...)

So fresh and so smooth. A portion of the Springwater near SE Luther Street this morning.
(Photos by reader Jonathan Ragsdale)

(more...)

Leverage stars will be out on the Springwater Trail this week.

Filming for the TNT television series Leverage will close the Springwater Corridor Trail this Thursday and Friday (8/5 and 8/6).

Leverage has been filmed in Portland for the past two seasons. According to location manager Don Baldwin, there are two sections of the trail that will be closed intermittently between the hours of 9:00 am and 4:00 pm both days.
(more...)

Riders roll by the junction with the
Oaks Bottom Trail.
(Photo © J. Maus)

As I reported back in March, next summer, from June to the end of September, the Springwater Corridor Trail on the Willamette River will be closed for a major project at Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge.

As a vital link from Sellwood to downtown Portland and the preferred commute route for an estimated 2,000 daily weekday commuters and around 5,000 daily users on the weekends, the closure is not being taken lightly. Last night, staff from the Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) and City Nature came to the City's Bike Advisory Committee meeting to share details about the project and to present their latest thinking on detour plans. (more...)

View details on closures below.
(Photo © J. Maus)

The Springwater Trail Repaving Project has begun and so have the closures we warned you about back in March. Since our last update, Portland Parks has released updated detour and closure information (which I've posted below).

To recap, this project is funded by a $1.8 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, a.k.a. the stimulus bill). The money will pay for repaving eight miles of trail and it's set for completion by the end of August.

The trail will be closed in four separate sections and the Parks Department has been kind enough to color code them for us. Detour details and scheduled closures are listed below... (more...)

A section of the Springwater Trail on the Willamette River near the Sellwood Bridge that has been closed since September officially re-opens today. The Bureau of Environmental Services had been working on a sewer pipeline project that had closed the trail from SE Spokane St. to Umatilla.

To celebrate the re-opening of the trail, BES will have refreshments for trail users at SE Grand and Umatilla from 4:00 - 6:00pm tonight (4/19).

Here's the flyer: (more...)

A very popular section of the trail
would be effected by the closure.
(Photo © J. Maus)

A project to enhance and improve the 170-acre Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge could close a popular section of the Springwater Corridor Trail for up to four months next summer. This closure is separate from the re-paving project that will come with intermittent closures through this summer starting next month.

Portland Parks & Recreation and the Bureau of Environmental Services say their Oaks Bottom Habitat Enhancement Project is 60% designed. Among the plan of the project are to enhance fish passage in and out of the river by replacing an existing culvert, remove invasive vegetation and add educational signage about the wetlands along the Springwater Trail.

Anne Nelson with BES says the trail closure is necessary because equipment to do the work must be transported on it. Here's more from Nelson: (more...)

The Springwater.
(Photo © J. Maus)

The $1.8 million, federal stimulus-funded repaving of the Springwater Corridor Trail is set to begin next month. Portland Parks & Recreation, who manages the trail, issued a statement about the project yesterday and shared details of the imminent closures and detours that will come with it.

The project will lay a 2-inch overlay of porous asphalt over eight miles of the existing trail and it will include new pavement markings, bollards, and signage.

According to Parks, the work will require periodic closures of the trail between SE 28th Avenue, just east of the Three Bridges section, to SE 174th and Jenn e Road near the border with the City of Gresham. In their statement, Parks says, "No continuous segment of the trail longer than two miles will be closed at any time, but several small segments could be closed simultaneously" and, "... the locations of closings may change from week to week during the project." (more...)

The Springwater Corridor Trail is
a major commute thoroughfare
and recreational facility.
(Photo © J. Maus)

The Springwater Corridor Trail is the closest thing Portland has to a bicycle superhighway.

When the trail is complete, you will be able to walk, run, skate, or ride your bike from the Steel Bridge all the way out beyond Gresham without ever sharing the road with a motorized vehicle. For now, only two major gaps remain, both in inner Portland, where you must exit the trail and wind through city streets.

The southern gap routes you through quiet, residential streets in Sellwood from SE Umatilla close to the river to SE 19th. The northern gap, from the current trailhead at SE Ivon to the beginning of the Eastbank Esplanade at OMSI, is by far the worst of the two, crossing through a major construction zone and the entrance to a gravel depot, creating a safety hazard and a signage and enforcement conundrum.

So what is the current status of these gaps? (more...)

This 7.2 mile stretch of the Springwater should be much smoother by summer 2010.
(Map: City of Portland)

A project to repave the popular Springwater Corridor Trail that was green-lighted by Metro back in March is now scheduled for completion by early June 2010. The $1.8 million project will overlay asphalt on top of the original rough chip seal surface for over seven miles of the trail from the east end of the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge to Jenne Road. The project was part of a $38 million pot of funds from the federal economic stimulus package.

Smooth sailin'.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Back in March, Kyle Chisek, a project manager at the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation, said construction would begin this past summer and would be completed "a couple of months" later (as in right about now). I followed up with Chisek this morning after a reader wrote in wondering why the project hadn't started yet.

Chisek said it comes down to all the paperwork (inter-governmental agreement between Transportation and Parks departments, environmental assessments) and process (approval from ODOT). According to Chisek, Portland Parks and Recreation (PP&R) "Really underestimated the time it would take to get through the federal process."

PP&R spokesperson Beth Sorensen said construction is currently slated for mid-March (it would have started this winter, but asphalt projects need dry weather). Sorensen also said that "for safety reasons" sections of the trail will be completely closed during construction. A detour plan will be created and so far, the schedule for the closures has not been released.

The Springwater Corridor
(Photo © J. Maus)

The city has issued an advisory that there will be a temporary detour early next month on the portion of the Springwater Trail that runs through the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, just north of the amusement park.

The 75 foot long detour will run directly parallel to the trail, only a few feet away, and will be in place between the hours of 6:30am and 6:00pm from Monday, October 5th to Wednesday, October 14th.

People traveling by bicycle will be asked to walk the distance of the detour. Flaggers will direct bicycle and foot traffic. (more...)

A $38 million project focused on
N/NE Portland could bring a cycle
track to N. Williams.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Metro has selected four active transportation projects to include in a grant application for possible funding through the U.S. Department of Transportation's $1.5 billion Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program.

The four projects, with an estimated total cost of $97 million, where whittled down from 27 that Metro received during a recent call for projects that went out to jurisdictions, agencies, and non-profit groups throughout the Portland region.

As we reported back in July, Metro decided to submit only non-motorized projects in their TIGER grant application and they wanted projects from each of three categories: "urban", "suburban", and "urban to nature". (more...)