The Sellwood Bridge construction became a reality for us recently when crews started clearing the businesses from the corner of 6th and Tacoma. This will be the site for a small city of trailers as City, County, State, Federal, and Construction Team crews set up for the 4-year construction process. The edge of trailerville comes right up to the edge of our parking lot so we’ll have a ringside seat, but it will be a short show- the demo crews expect to have the site cleared in a couple days. There’s a ‘before’ picture below, and we’ll have the ‘after’ pic for you in the next newsletter.
Another big issue for the Bridge this month was the Westside construction involving the Macadam Bay floating home community and the businesses near Miles Street. Macadam Bay currently has a driveway that connects with Highway 43 just to the north of the bridge, but it will be too close to the new bridge and will have to be moved for safety. The original solution to the problem was presented in 2009, and involved using part of Freeman Motors’ parking lot as an egress. This was considered the way to go until Macadam Bay residents brought up safety concerns with the new location, causing the County to present several other options. These new options involved routing Macadam Bay traffic onto Miles Place and then onto Miles Street and back up to Highway 43, resulting in significant redesign and rebuild of the streets in the area, dislocating a home and business, and eliminating much of the parking for the area businesses. This caused an uproar for all involved, and the June bridge meeting was packed with people offering testimony on the various options. After a very thorough examination, the Community Advisory Council recommended a variation of the original plan that calls for a new driveway next to Freeman Motors, changing a huge power structure to a much smaller one, and clearing trees and reshaping the curve between the driveway and the bridge to improve visibility. The revised design was unanimously accepted and will be passed up the chain to the County, so we’ll see where it goes.
…and don’t forget …
Multnomah County is set to keep you updated on the bridge construction 24/7. Their website at SellwoodBridge.org has full project information, archives, and other resources. Probably the most interesting thing on the site are the cameras set up to cover the new bridge construction. The link at left takes you to the live camera, and there’s also a time-lapse video that will condense the each day’s construction progress into just a few minutes.
