(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
Multnomah County continues to inch closer to completion of the Sellwood Bridge project; but some of the final changes mean yet another temporary closure.
Starting this Friday the 19th at 7:00 pm through Tuesday morning the 23rd (no later than 6:00 am), the bridge will be closed to all users. When it reopens you’ll notice new lane striping and new traffic signals at each end of the bridge.
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A new signal at SE Tacoma and 6th will aim to reduce cut-through traffic through nearby residential neighborhoods and the neighborhood greenway one block north on Spokane Street. Auto users going northbound on 6th will only be allowed to turn right (east) onto Tacoma. Bicycle riders and people on foot will be able cross Tacoma and get onto the bridge westbound thank to sensor loops in the pavement and/or push buttons.
Here’s an image of the new signal from the County:
Learn more about this project at SellwoodBridge.org.
— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org
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What’s the status on the new/rebuilt trail along the banks of the Willamette between the Sellwood Bridge and Willamette Park? I’ve lost track of the openings, closures etc. and now I’m not using it even though I could probably save time if I were confident it were open the whole way.
Hi Daniel,
The new path is open as far as we know. Here’s a story we did about it back in June. If you ride it let us know how it works out.
Rode the west side today and the bike path is closed forcing riders on to the sidewalk beside 43
It’s definitely open since July(?). I’ve been using it a couple weeks anyway.
Saw it on the Bridge Pedal. Nice to not be on the skinny “roller coaster” just north of Sellwood. I need to go out and ride it though. I limit my exposure time in SE 🙂
I’m hypothesizing that the only thing that’s been keeping massive numbers of aggro westbound cut-through drivers off of Umatilla in the morning is the current configuration that requires them to make a left on Tacoma from 6th off of a stop sign to get onto the bridge.
So now that they’ll have a light for making that left, it’s going to be a much more attractive option.
I hope I’m wrong. If not, I’ll be calling PBOT daily asking for diverters.
I’ll wait to see if that traffic light at 6th Ave will truly keep the cut-thru traffic away.
Cars going left or straight through on northbound 6th are prohibited by this design. Some concrete or at least plastic barriers would be a nice, consistent enforcer of that.
What I don’t get is the bike box checkerboard.
I see that now and stand very much corrected (there were precisely zero westbound drivers on Umatilla this morning.)
Now that we’re little over a month in I can report the following: I’ve taken four trips through this intersection in the past two weeks or so. Every single time, a driver made an illegal left onto the bridge.
And this morning, there were FIVE cars LINED UP at the intersection – the first of them blotting out the bike box. Ironically, they all had their left turn signals on (ironic because it’s so rare for drivers use turn signals for any purpose in this neighborhood.)
Would have gotten a picture, but my phone’s battery ran out.
And I have now notified PBOT twice.
I was having trouble remembering which street was which. 5th (slightly west) coming out of Sellwood is the one that dead-ends for cars and has/had a sidewalk ramp for cyclists who were coming up from Springwater. 6th is the first one that goes through, there’s a strip club on the northwest corner. Map, streetview, satellite.