The hot, eerily empty
Springwater Trail yesterday.
(Photos by Erin Greeson)

Today, while commuting home midday to finish my work from an air-conditioned office, a great thing happened. Just when I thought I’d prepared smartly for the 100-degree ride — dousing my head in cold water beforehand and chugging water all morning long — my lack of preparedness on another front led to an unexpected situation.

As I rode down SE Lincoln, I noted an atypically low number of fellow cyclists on this usually busy route. The heat has kept people indoors or in their cars, I thought to myself. I made my way through Ladd’s Addition, under the Hawthorne Bridge and onto the Springwater Corridor Trail (popular bike routes, which were all sparsely populated). (more...)

Riders assess damage after
tack incident last month.
(Photo: Lauren Bayard)

We may have a serial trail vandal on our hands who's out to cause flat tires and puncture wounds for folks using the popular Springwater Corridor Trail -- and now the Parks department is working with the Police to track them down.

Last month we reported that vandals had spread hundreds of tacks on the trail. BikePortland reader Craig Harlow reported the incident saying that after he and several other riders got flats they fanned out and found "about 300 [tacks] strewn along 50 yards of the path." (more...)

Craig Harlow (L) and Adam Marx
fixing flats caused by tacks
strewn on the Springwater Trail.
(Photo: Lauren Bayard)

"Frigging HUNDREDS of them," is how Portland Craig Harlow described the scene when he and a group of friends noticed tacks strewn along the Springwater Corridor Trail on a recent ride.

Harlow says that they came across the tacks on Sunday, just east of Powell Butte near the bridge at SE Circle Ave. Harlow reported the incident into our B-SMaRT tracking tool where he wrote:

"We noticed a few more tacks on the path, and as we were picking them up we stopped approaching riders to warn them, so they started looking too. With about 10 of us looking we found about 300 strewn long 50 yards of the path."

(more...)

The Springwater Corridor Trail will get some much-needed TLC this summer.
(Map of project boundaries courtesy of the City of Portland)

(more...)

The Springwater Trail is much
more than just a park.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Last month we shared the news that the City of Gresham had decided to close the Springwater Corridor Trail at night. They said they were doing it "for everyone's safety" and to bring the trail in line with their other park facilities.

Opposition to the idea came as soon as it was announced. The concern was raised because for thousands of bike commuters every day, the Springwater is much more than a park, it's a key transportation corridor.

According to official counts of daily bike traffic on the trail by the City of Portland in 2007, an estimated 2,500 people on bikes use the trail each day (that's based on a count done at the Oaks Bottom area during peak commuting hours and extrapolated over a 24-hour period. The same count found 1,800 daily riders pass by the trail at SE Spokane.). (more...)

This flyer was passed out at a
meeting last night to announce the
Springwater closure.
(Click to enlarge)

At last night's Multnomah County Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee meeting, BikePortland.org correspondent Matt Picio was surprised to hear about a decision to close the Springwater Corridor Trail at night.

According to Picio, the issue came up at the end of the meeting under an agenda item titled, "Springwater Trail and the City of Gresham - Discuss (5 minutes)". When the item came up, Multnomah County bike and pedestrian coordinator (and staff liaison to the committee) Jennifer Dederich, passed out a flyer (PDF here) that outlined the new policy. (more...)

Pavement in limbo due to
funding uncertainty.
(Photo: Aaron Tarfman)

Supporters of a project that would pave the Springwater Trail from SE Rugg Road to Dee Street in Boring are celebrating this morning after news that the Oregon Department of Transportation has put the project on its recommended funding list.

The $1.2 million Springwater Trail project -- which was applied for by the Clackamas County Parks department and received an outpouring of community support -- is one of 13 on the final recommended list (out of an initial 91). According to Clackamas County Parks planner Katie Dunham, the total project cost is $1.8 million and it won't happen with the TE money. (more...)

After a protracted legal battle that first came to light back in April of 2006, a Willamette riverfront property owner whose parcel lies in a key gap between two popular trails has relented and agreed to allow a trail to be built on their property.

The news comes from the BTA's metro-area advocate Emily Gardner via the BTA Blog (emphasis mine): (more...)

Just received this info sheet and call for comments from Clackamas County Parks planner Katie Dunham. They're also have a public meeting on Sept 3rd (more info here). I hope to have a Front Page story on this soon.

Please voice your support for the Springwater Corridor in Clackamas County!

Clackamas County is requesting $1,200,000 for the Springwater Corridor Improvement Project through the 2011-2013 Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Transportation Enhancement Program (TE). The Project will pave 2.21 miles of the Springwater Corridor from Rugg Road in Clackamas County to Dee Street in Boring, with a 10 to 12 foot wide multi-use pathway with soft shoulders for use by pedestrians, bicyclists and equestrians.
(more...)

Clackamas County Parks and Portland Parks and Recreation will hold their second of three public planning meetings to discuss improvements to the Springwater Corridor and the Boring Station Trailhead Park.

Meeting is at:
Boring Middle School
27801 SE Dee Street
Boring, OR 97009

Questions, suggestions or comments may be sent to kdunham@co.clackamas.or.us
or call 503-794-8051 Visit the project Web site at
www.boringstation.com

Clackamas County Parks
9101 SE Sunnybrook Blvd.
Clackamas, OR 97015

Springwater Corridor Trail
(Photo: Jonathan Maus)

KATU has the story of a man who was attacked on Wednesday night while riding on the Springwater Corridor Trail in Clackamas County.

"Dave Miller said the suspects (about 10 of them) stepped out of the darkness, robbing and punching him and even stomping on his face...they also stole his Specialized mountain bike..."

In the story, Miller said he thinks security on the trail should be improved.

KATU also interviewed Bike Gallery employee Dennis Wyman. In their video report he said, "I know that if somebody's gonna' try to take my bike from me, they're gonna hurt as much as I get hurt." (more...)

SK Northwest -- one of Oregon's largest dealers of personal watercraft and ATV's -- refuses to give up on their plans to develop property on the Willamette (without granting riverfront trail access) just south of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI).
(more...)

Officials including Director of Parks
Zari Santner, Milwaukie Mayor Jim Bernard,
and Congressman Earl Blumenauer,
cut the ribbon last October.
File photo: 10/20/06

The Cities of Portland and Milwaukie, Metro, and local neighborhoods have announced plans to celebrate the completion of the Three Bridges on the Springwater Corridor Trail

The $5 million project, that created three new bicycle and pedestrian bridges connecting southeast Portland to Milwaukie, got its official dedication and ribbon-cutting last October. That event drew politicians and advocates including Portland Mayor Tom Potter, Milwaukie Mayor Jim Bernard, Metro councilor Rex Burkholder, and Congressman Earl Blumenauer.
(more...)

The Portland Bureau of Development Services has issued another denial for SK Northwest. It's been one year since I first broke the story of the company's plans to develop a facility along the Willamette River, just south of OMSI.
(more...)

Proposed development area.
Click to enlarge graphic

SK Northwest, a Portland-based retailer of jet-skis and personal watercraft, has submitted another proposal to develop a key parcel of Willamette riverfront land.

The proposal was submitted to the Bureau of Development Services (BDS) on March 1st and once again, it does not include plans for a trail.

You might recall the long and winding saga of this company's attempts to develop land on the Willamette riverfront just south of OMSI. I've covered the story extensively since breaking the news almost one year ago.
(more...)

If you ride on the Esplanade and the Springwater Corridor south of OMSI you know that there's a ton of construction going.

In addition to the Big Pipe Project, ODOT is currently working on a $64 million project to replace the MLK/Grand Viaduct.
(more...)

[Milwaukie Mayor Jim Bernard
and Congressman Earl
Blumenauer cut the ribbon.]

Transportation advocates, neighborhood leaders, and elected officials huddled under a tent on a blustery morning yesterday to officially dedicate the on-time and on-budget Three Bridges Project on the Springwater Corridor Trail.

Portland Parks Director Zari Santner led the ceremony and introduced key players in the project, from the construction engineer to U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer.

Also on hand at the ceremony were City of Milwaukie Mayor Jim Bernard, a slew of PDOT staffers, Metro Councilors Rex Burkholder and Brian Newman, advocates from the 40-Mile Loop Land Trust, and others.
(more...)

More details have emerged about the official dedication of the three bridges project on the Springwater Corridor Trail.

[From the official invitation]

(more...)

The $4.7 million, three-year project to create three new bicycle and pedestrian bridges along the Springwater Corridor Trail is finally nearing completion.

According to Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder's September newsletter, a ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled for October 19th. Organizers are still working out details, but save the date for this historic event!

The graphic below (Courtest of the Parks Department) shows where on the Springwater these bridges have been constructed:
(more...)

The SK Northwest case is getting messier by the week. There has just been a second appeal (links to PDF) filed against the Bureau of Development Services (BDS) decision to not allow their permit. SK Northwest is seeking to build their business on a key section of the Springwater Corridor Trail and not grant the city any trail access across the property.
(more...)