connect oregon

Tigard, Beaverton, Milwaukie paths get nod for likely state funding

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

A BikePortland Get Together in Tigard in 2010. The city’s trail system consistently ranks highly for state grants.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

As we reported Wednesday, Portland’s proposed Flanders Crossing Active Transportation Bridge across Interstate 405 made the cut for probable funding from a two-year, $45 million state program.

On Friday, the state released a full list of 75 project rankings from the final review committee for the lottery-backed Connect Oregon program.

Of those, 37 fit into the top-priority $45 million worth of projects.

The long-proposed span would connect downtown Portland and the Pearl District with the Northwest District.
(Photos: M. Andersen/BikePortland)

A new biking-walking bridge across Interstate 405 at Northwest Flanders has probably made the cut for funding, a state official said Wednesday.

The approximately 250-foot-long, 24-foot-wide bridge would become by far the most comfortable crossing of Interstate 405, an alternative to the existing crossings at Everett, Glisan and Couch. Paired with a proposed neighborhood greenway on Flanders from the Steel Bridge west to 24th Avenue, the span is expected to carry 9,100 trips per day.

That figure, which includes both biking and walking trips, is higher than the summertime bike counts across the Hawthorne Bridge and about five times the daily bike ridership so far on Tilikum Crossing.

The span at Flanders and I-405.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

The prospects for rapid state funding of a biking-walking bridge across Interstate 405 dimmed somewhat Monday as a regional advisory committee appointed by the Oregon Department of Transportion ranked it as only the eighth off-street transportation priority for the Portland region.

Top marks went to a 19-acre, $2.6 million parking lot that would help the Ford Motor Co. export more cars to China — though only if Ford agrees to increase its exports via the Port of Portland, which it hasn’t.

The project would build a new crossing of Naito, add bike lanes, realign the greenway path, and add railroad crossing safety features.
(Graphic: PBOT)

The “Naito gap” is one of the most glaring gaps in Portland’s vaunted bikeway network. Ever since Portland decided to take down a suspended overpass in 2003 (due to, ironically, safety concerns), the 120 feet across Naito Parkway between Waterfront Park and NW 1st Avenue has prevented people from walking and biking between Old Town/Chinatown and the Steel Bridge.

The new bridge in place with NW Glisan in upper left and Everett in lower right.
(PBOT)

At long last the City of Portland has a clear and solid plan for building a biking and walking bridge over I-405 at Northwest Flander St. Now all they need is $3 million from the Oregon Department of Transportation to build it.

The Red Electric Trail, a dream for southwest neighborhood activists, could get over $600,000 in funding if a city grant request comes through.

City Council voted 5-0 yesterday to authorize grant applications for five major bikeway projects. The $9 million in grant requests would help the Bureau of Transportation fund a host of key projects, some of which have languished on lists and in the hearts of advocates for many years.

Paul Langner is a facility manager for a timber and freight company in Rainier, Oregon. He’s concerned that bike projects are getting too much priority in the Connect Oregon funding program.
(Image from Morrow Pacific project)

The concept of a bicycling corridor being more important to Oregon than a freight rail connection, an idea which a state committee is likely to validate on Thursday, is drawing sharp criticism from some Oregonians.

A committee set up to review applications for a major state funding program made their final selections yesterday and projects that will improve bicycling — including bike parking at the Goose Hollow MAX station — fared well. $42 million in state-backed Lottery funds were up for grabs in the Connect Oregon program this cycle (its fifth) — and this was the first time in the program’s history that bicycling and walking projects were eligible for the money.

The blue dashed lane along the south bank of the Tualatin River shows a future trail connection that might be funded by $1.6 million in state lottery proceeds.
(Image: City of Tualatin)

A mixed-use path link in Tualatin is among the top contenders for a lottery-funded state grant program that includes biking and walking projects for the first time this year.

The 0.8-mile, Tualatin River Greenway gap completion project is faring well in the state’s competitive Connect Oregon program because it creates a low-stress link to jobs and retail across Interstate 5 for 67,000 nearby residents. It’d cost $3.1 million; Tualatin is hoping half will come from Connect Oregon.

Also performing well in early (and still flexible) rankings for Connect Oregon’s state lottery dollars are the proposed Tigard Street Trail, which would convert an unused rail alignment to a walking/biking path along SW Tigard Street from SW Main Street to SW Tiedeman Avenue, and a TriMet proposal to add secure bike parking and safe track crossings at the Beaverton Creek and Goose Hollow MAX stations.

Places like Champoeg State Park (shown above) could become even more welcoming to bike riders if funding comes through.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

As we’ve been covering since the legislature passed it back in July, a pot of $42 million in Oregon Lottery-backed funding is now available to bicycling projects for the first time ever through the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Connect Oregon program.

And, not surprisingly, when the application process opened at the end of last year, ODOT was flooded with biking and walking projects from throughout the state. Of the 108 applications sent in, 35 of them were in the “Bicycle/Pedestrian” category (the other categories are aviation, marine, rain and transit) and the dollar amount for those projects totaled more than any other mode.

Now ODOT has released more information about each project, so we decided to take a look.

The addition of those three words into a funding
bill are a major success story for the BTA.

The Portland-based Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) is up for a Bicycling Magazine People’s Choice Advocacy Award. The awards, promoted by the magazine in partnership with the Alliance for Biking & Walking, will be given to one of ten finalists who gets the most votes in an online poll made public yesterday.

The BTA has been recognized for their work with the Oregon legislature to pass a major change to the Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) ConnectOregon transportation funding program. For its first four years of existence, this state lottery-backed funding source, also known as the Multimodal Transportation Fund, was open to just about every “non-highway” transportation mode except bicycling and walking. That glaring omission was corrected last year when Senate Bill 260 was passed into law.

Legislator bike ride at the Oregon Bike Summit-30

The Union Street Bridge in Salem — open only for walking and biking — is the type of project that is eligible for ConnectOregon funds.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

Cities across Oregon are clamoring for more money to build infrastructure that makes it easier for people to walk and bike.

Back in July, thanks to a concerted lobbying effort the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), the state of Oregon made biking and walking projects eligible for $42 million in funding through the ConnectOregon program for the first time ever.

Sources say this never would have happened without the BTA’s extensive and focused lobbying on the bill and they call it the biggest victory for BTA in Salem in at least 5 years.

ConnectOregon began in 2005 and it relies on lottery-backed bonds to invest in “multimodal transportation projects” around the state. It’s a rare state transportation program that offers dedicated funding for “non-highway” infrastructure. Prior to this year, only air, rail, marine/ports, and transit infrastructure were eligible.

Yesterday, ODOT announced they received 108 applications for this year’s round of ConnectOregon funding. Of the $129.4 million total requested funds, $47.5 million are categorized as “Bicycle/Pedestrian” — more than any of the other four eligible modes and more than the requests for Aviation, Marine, and Transit projects combined.

Tigard, Beaverton, Milwaukie paths get nod for likely state funding

State will likely fund Flanders Crossing of 405, spurring thousands of bike trips in NW

Portland-region committee gives middling marks to NW Flanders bridge project

How Portland wants to finally close the notorious Naito Gap

First look at city’s plans for bike/walk bridge over I-405 at Flanders

City applies for funding of Flanders bikeway bridge, 70s Bikeway, and more

‘Bike/ped does not belong’: some question state’s funding of bike projects

Tualatin River Greenway, TriMet Bike & Rides among likely ‘Connect Oregon’ grant winners

‘Bike Pods’ at State Parks among projects lining up for Oregon Lottery dollars

BTA up for national ‘Bicycling Magazine People’s Choice’ advocacy award

Bike/walk projects dominate requests for state lottery-backed funding program

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