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Organizers of this weekend’s Sunday Parkways event in East Portland had hoped their route would show off a freshly paved portion of the Springwater Corridor Trail. But now, due to late June rains that pushed back the schedule on a major repaving project on the Springwater, the Portland Parks and Recreation department has informed PBOT that the trail will be closed on Sunday (7/18). In response, PBOT has issued a revised route map for the event.
Linda Ginenthal, program manager of PBOT’s Transportation Options division, says “We are very disappointed… It’s a real missed opportunity”.
The original route extended south from Lents Park via the I-205 mutli-use path to the Springwater Corridor Trail, where it then headed east along the trail before turning north on SE 101st Ave. and up to a northern loop that reached up to Ed Benedict Park on SE Bush. Now, the entire southern loop has been cut off leaving the northern loop and an extension to Lents Park for a total route distance of 4.5 miles.
This news is also a blow to volunteers and Lents residents who spent time and money to get ready for the event rolling through their neighborhood: In a comment below, Lents resident Cora Potter writes,
“Volunteers gave up a lot of their time and the neighborhood association spent a lot of their funds to organize for extra vendors, music and activities in the Lents Town Center because of the Sunday Parkway. Now, less than a week before the event, all of the people we organized to entertain are no longer being directed to the area.”
Potter hopes Sunday Parkways attendees will still make the extra effort to leave the official route and ride down to the Lents Town Center via the I-205 path to enjoy the party.
For more information on what will be the third of five Sunday Parkways events this summer, visit PBOT’s website.
To see the latest updates on the Springwater Trail closures, visit the repaving project website.