(Photo © J. Maus)
Multnomah County announced yesterday that the multi-use path on the Morrison Bridge will close to all traffic beginning Monday (6/13) and the multi-use path that serves both directions of bike traffic will be closed until mid-September of this year.
The closure is for a $4.2 million construction project that will replace the metal lift span with a solid deck surface that will improve traction and safety for motor vehicles. The project is expected to last until late this year. Below is the breakdown of how traffic will be impacted:
- One eastbound traffic lane will remain open from SW 2nd Avenue to I-5 N/I-84 E and to SE Belmont Street and SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd./Highway 99E throughout the project. Access from I-5 S/I-84 W to the Morrison Bridge and downtown Portland will remain open throughout the project.
- The SW Naito Parkway onramp to the Morrison Bridge will be closed the entire duration of the project.
- Westbound access to the bridge from SE Morrison Street and SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd./Highway 99E will be closed until late 2011. Alternate bridges for westbound traffic include the Hawthorne and Burnside. Access to I-5 northbound from SE Morrison Street and SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd./ Highway 99E will remain open throughout the project.
- Work on the south side of the lift span will require the multiuse path on the south side of the bridge to be closed.
- The bridge’s north sidewalk will remain open when the south path is closed. The offramp from the bridge to SE Water Avenue will also be closed during work on the south side of the lift span.
- TriMet’s 15-Belmont/NW 23rd bus line has been re-routed across the Hawthorne Bridge during construction.
This closure comes amid several others in the area that have impacted bicycle traffic, including a segment of the Esplanade near OMSI (for TriMet bridge construction), the floating portion of the Esplanade (due to high water), and Waterfront Park just south of the Steel Bridge (due to the Rose Festival).
I asked county spokesperson Mike Pullen for more details on how the Morrison closure will impact the multi-use path (which serves both directions of bike travel).
“The MUP will be closed for the first half of the project, when the contractor will replace the open steel deck grating on the south half of the lift spans. The south phase should be done later this summer. Then the work will shift to the north side of the lift span and the MUP will reopen.”
Pullen says people should use the Hawthorne and Burnside bridges as alternate routes.
“We regret the inconvenience to bicyclists and pedestrians,” Pullen wrote to us via email, “especially in the short term when the Esplanade path is closed north of the Morrison due to high water.”