(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)
By next month, the Springwater Corridor bike path will be in the best shape its been in since early 2012. It will also boast a new, 2.25 mile section of pavement at its southern end in the town of Boring.
Portland Parks & Recreation is currently trying to finish up its repair of major damage to a section of the popular path just south of the Ross Island Bridge. A portion of the path fell into the Willamette River in March of 2012 and Parks is still working to repair the damage. The project has led to a full closure of the Springwater from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on weekdays since the end of September. Due to wet weather that prevents paving, the City now says the path will remain under construction until “at least this coming Friday” (the 22nd). For more details on the construction and why it has taken so long, read this article published by The Oregonian on Monday.
Clackamas County is also working on the Springwater. Their project is paving a 2.25 mile section between SE Rugg Road and Dee Street in Boring.
Here’s how the path used to look south of SE Rugg Road…
And here’s a section almost completed as of October 22nd…
This $1.9 million project ($1.2 million of which came from a federal Transportation Enhancements grant) will convert the existing narrow gravel path into a 10-12 foot wide paved path (with a gravel shoulder) that’s similar to conditions on other parts of the path (which currently ends at SE Rugg). Rain has forced delays in the completion of this project and Clackamas County tells us they hope to be finished by November 25th. In the meantime, this section of the path will be closed to all public access. For more information on this project, check out official website.
In other local bike path news, we have confirmed that the new paved path along the Columbia Slough between N Vancouver Avenue and N Denver is now open to the public.