Multnomah County is improving a major bike detour between downtown and the Sellwood Bridge, and wants to thank BikePortland readers for their help making it better.
The detour is needed while county contractors replace a culvert that runs below the trolley tracks. The detour closes the trail between SW Nevada St. and the driveway to Macadam Bay.
Here’s the word from Multnomah County spokesman Mike Pullen, in a comment on this site yesterday:
The trail detour along the east sidewalk of SW Macadam Ave. will be in place until the culvert is replaced and a temporary bridge is installed across Stephens Creek. In 2014 trail users will be able to use the old alignment. The new regional trail between the bridge and SW Miles Street will open by 2016.
The project team will be making the following improvements to the trail detour:
• Remove vegetation growing over the sidewalk between Nevada St. and Macadam Bay (in the next week).
• Add an asphalt patch across the trolley tracks along the detour route between Willamette Park and Nevada St. The consortium of agencies that own the property have agreed in concept to the fix but they need to see the details. This should be completed in July.
• Close bus stop on south side of Miles St. This should be done in July. The nearest bus stop is two blocks north.
• Extend the 25 mph construction zone speed limit from Macadam Bay to Miles St./Taylors Ferry Road. This request is being submitted to ODOT for a decision. As the project limits end here, extending the speed zone north of Taylor’s Ferry is not supportable.Some users suggested they still prefer using Miles Street. Trail users who prefer Willamette Park and Miles St. to the Nevada St. detour are allowed to use that route, which remains open. To minimize conflicts with the trucks using the haul road entrance at Miles Street, our recommended detour route is Nevada St.
When we published Pullen’s request for advice two weeks ago, several BikePortland readers expressed concern about the detour along a narrow sidewalk. The changes above incorporate a few suggestions and reflect some of those concerns.
Though the detour remains a significant annoyance for north-south traffic near the river, it’s always nice to know the county is listening and looking for ways to make things better.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to the Willamette Greenway as the “Westside Trail,” a different project currently being planned.