(Photos: Lisa Caballero/BikePortland)
The City of Portland continues to make solid progress on key projects in southwest: the Red Electric Trail and Bridge and SW Capitol Highway – Multnomah Village to West Portland projects.
The Red Electric Trail Bridge
Since our last report, the span for the Red Electric Trail bridge has been set in place. You can finally get a sense of what this path through the trees will be like in the photo above. The project is scheduled to complete in the spring of 2022.
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SW Capitol Highway
This past weekend was probably the chance to see the inner workings of the 42nd St/Woods Creek stormwater facility. Weather permitting, the basin will be filled with soil this week in preparation for post-frost plantings in the spring.
As you can see in the photo above, workers constructed an underdrain which cuts through the three chambers, it looks like it’s made out of tightly packed gravel or very permeable asphalt. Possibly there is a perforated pipe inside of the gravel, I don’t know, I missed its construction. The turquoise pipes rising out of the underdrain look to me like venting in order to maintain proper waterflow.
The two photos below show the intake and outflow for the basin. Early next year, the intake will be connected to stormwater pipes which will run from SW Capitol Highway, under Alice St and 42nd Ave, to the basin.
If you missed the fun of watching this basin get built, don’t worry, there are others! The most easily accessible basin to watch will also be the largest one, next to the US Post Office at the corner of Multnomah Blvd and 40th Ave. You can sign up to receive project updates and schedule at the SW Capitol Highway project website.
Publisher’s note: In two weeks, Lisa will leave Portland for a few months, so this will be her last SW infrastructure update until next spring.
Thanks for reading.
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I’ll miss reading your infrastructure updates!
Thank you! They’ve been fun to do—I feel like three year old looking at tractors. And with the storm water basins, it’s been bugging me for a few years that I didn’t know how they were done.
LIsa – safe travels, and I also look forward to your reporting next spring.
We will miss your excellent SW reporting for the next few months here at SW Trails!
Thanks for the SW reporting! Does anyone have a link to the bike lanes proposal for Capitol Hwy? The only think I can find is something pretty rough from 2018 – city’s website doesn’t seem to be providing anything solid that I’m able to find.