NOTE: On July 1st PBOT announced the installation has been postponed. No new date has been released yet.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation says the Congressman Earl Blumenauer Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge is ready to be installed across Interstate 84.
The bridge project that will connect the Central Eastside to the Lloyd on 7th Avenue broke ground in November 2019. Earlier in June we reported on delays that had left the span and its supports on either side of Sullivan’s Gulch in limbo for several months. Now PBOT says crews will move the 800,000 pound, 400-foot-long bridge into place the weekend of July 9th.
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In 2015 we named this bridge as one of the four bikeways it would take to make the Lloyd great; but its value to the bike network and the city in general go way beyond one neighborhood. The bridge (formerly known as Sullivan’s Crossing and named after Portland’s beloved U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer) will provide a crucial north-south connection where none exists today and it’s a key part of the future “Green Loop” — a linear park and pathway that will someday connect the entire central city.
The new bridge will not be open for car and trucks users, but it will serve as a lifeline for emergency vehicles in the event of a major earthquake. PBOT also plans new public plazas on each side of the bridge.
Keep in mind that the installation will require the closure of I-84 in both directions from Friday night (July 9th) to early Monday morning (July 12th). This could mean more car users than usual on on adjacent surface streets.
Learn more about the project at Portland.gov.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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Why will it take 6+months to finish install after the lift, when they claimed before that shutting railroad for the lift was the holdup? I get that removing the temp. support is a big project, and this is a much more complicated installation than recent Flanders was.
Wait, so it’s not even opening THIS YEAR? What?
from the official page announcing the lift: “When it opens in early 2022,” At other points it could be as late as March
I’m glad for the city’s recent infrastructure announcements, but they pale in scale to the walking and riding trails we’ve lost in recent years to the safety and environmental hazards of unchecked urban campsites.
The recent North Greeley improvements are great, for example, but the tents and cars on the Going Street trail (itself a major investment in riding and walking) have been choking off eastward access for over a year.
Or cleaning up great infrastructure like the I-205 and Springwater paths. Unfortunately the homeless advocates have everyones hands tied.
Jon, Thank you. . Thanks for pointing out the obvious
that some of the leftist bullies in this town attempt to crucify anyone who doesn’t agree with their world view. It has paralyzed any progress on making our bike trails clean and safe. Yes to compassion but also yes to personal responsibility.
Glad to see this is moving forward.
I noticed how many large, mature trees appear in the conceptual rendering. Even if we generously allow that they might plant all those trees (and based on the angle of the image, surely some of them would be outside the scope of the project) and in 20 years they’ll grow to these heights, it borders on misleading to suggest it will look like this once the bridge is installed. The ramp from I-5 NB to I-84 EB doesn’t even appear to exist in the rendering.
I get that when they draw up these things, they want them to look pleasing and thus be accepted, but I think rendering it as a park-like fantasy will only result in disappointment when it inevitably doesn’t turn out this way. If we want our cityscape to look like this (and I certainly would!) then we need to remove lanes of traffic and other hard infrastructure for real.
FWIW the construction plans for the bridge do in fact show a lot of trees being planted on the embankment at the north landing.
do you have link to those?
I’m glad it’s happening but it’s still a let down that it now won’t be opened until 2022, almost a year and a half behind schedule.
Happy it’s progressing
Bummed it’s taking so long
Afraid it’s going to be blocked and vandalized
You need to work on your haiku skills, your syllable count is all over the place. 😉
Psmith,
Only in Portland
Do we build cool bike stuff
To trash it in weeks.
Just kidding, it got indefinitely delayed for further coordination? I’m not crossing my fingers for completion next year.