(Photos and story by Will Vanlue)
The Fanno Creek Trail, which the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation Department is grooming for a name-change to the Fanno Creek Greenway, will soon be a little safer for people traveling around Main Street in Tigard.
I was passing through the area the other day and noticed crews spraying herbicide on overgrown blackberries on an existing but inaccessible piece of the popular path north of Highway 99.
It reminded me that construction on a new section of the Fanno Creek Trail is scheduled to start this summer, which will connect Main Street with Grant Avenue. It will allow people to travel along the Fanno Creek Trail, from southern Tigard up through Beaverton, without having to cross Highway 99. (Jockeying for space with people eager to zip onto Highway 99 can be intimidating, especially for children and people less comfortable riding with high-speed motor vehicle traffic.)
There’s an existing trail leading under the highway but right now it leads to a narrow, overgrown path that’s way too small for wheelchairs or strollers. The path runs parallel with the highway and drops you out in the middle of an off-ramp leading from 99 into a nearby store’s parking lot.
The new, ADA-compliant section of trail is scheduled to open later this year and will give people living in the neighborhoods around Main Street and Highway 99 a much safer, saner, and more enjoyable way to access parks, schools, and stores in the vicinity.
It will also mean an easier commute for all the people who ride home along the trail, resulting in better access to happy hour at the Fanno Creek Brew Pub!
More information about the new section of the Fanno Creek Trail is available on the City of Tigard’s website.
— This story by contributor Will Vanlue was originally posted on his blog, The Prudent Cyclist. Read more of our Washington County coverage here.
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OK, so, don’t stop to pick and eat the blackberries this summer if you want to stay healthy!
Oh, there’s no question which plants they’ve sprayed and which they haven’t. The herbicide they were applying has an unnatural shade of blue/green that stands out pretty boldly on the plant.
Plus, they were only spraying inside a fenced in area that’s not open to the public yet. It looked like they left the blackberries on the small path between the fence and 99 untouched so those might still be delicious.
Good to hear. I know himalayan blackberries are invasive, but they are delicious bike fuel in season.
Especially for goats.
Soooo, how is the beer? It looks good.
Very, very good. The glass you see is a Belgian Trippel they have on tap right now called St. Fanno.
Just a little note if we get heavy rain it floods parts of this trail.
Yeah, that happens when we get a downpour. Did you see it back in January? This sign should have been changed to “Thank you for floating bike.”
haha awesome I turned around my bike sinks 🙂
looks like we might need a ” beer report ” sounds like a nice watering hole.
In related news, I see that they are installing a foot/bike bridge over Fanno Creek near the intersection of Allen and Scholls Ferry. I’m assuming this is part of the Fanno Creek trail.
It’s very bright and shiny aluminum. Not the usual look and feel as the other bridges in the system.
The trail has some funky connections near Allen and Scholls, and there’s a lot of construction planned both on the roads and on the trail in that area.
Do you know more specifically where the new bridge is at? I haven’t heard anything specific about it yet but I’d love to go check it out myself.
2 sections were on the side of the road, not yet installed. Near the Scholls Ferry bridge that crosses Fanno Creek, west side of road.
right here:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=raleigh+hills+oregon&ll=45.470359,-122.775277&spn=0.000551,0.000862&hnear=Raleigh+Hills,+Washington,+Oregon&gl=us&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=45.470449,-122.775235&panoid=794x2Umt9Jw5WqiKKezJMQ&cbp=12,332.96,,0,4.24
Looking forward to seeing it again soon… as I’m moving out of Beaverton this summer, and this will be along my commute route.
This will be a nice addition to the trail for walkers. But I think the best route for bicycling south along the trail will still be Johnson St – L on Grant Ave. – R on Tigard St. – R on Main St. – L on Burnham St. – R on Hall Blvd. The advantages – you get a free right on Tigard, Main, and Hall; you cross under 99; you get a left turn lane from Main onto Burnham. Hardly ever have to put a foot down on my morning commute. I used to take the currently prescribed route and cross 99 at Johnson onto Main. Lame.
The pedestrian bridge crossing Fanno Creek that is mentioned above is a temporary installation. It is being put in so pedestrians and cyclists can cross the creek during construction that will raise and widen the Scholls Ferry Rd. bridge over the creek just south of Allen Blvd. This is a Washington County MSTIP 3C project that will construct a three vehicle lane bridge complete with 6′ bike lanes and 8′ sidewalks that will extend from just north of Denny Blvd. to Allen Blvd. The metal pedestrian bridge will be removed once construction is completed in about a year.