Sellwood Bridge plan would keep existing footprint
by The Oregonian
Thursday February 05, 2009, 9:36 PM
Brent Wojahn/The Oregonian
A panel of policymakers today is expected to endorse a Sellwood Bridge replacement plan that uses the cracked, 83-year-old bridge's current alignment but forces five families out of their homes.
The decision on a new, $300 million bridge will end more than two years of study and widespread dispute over the route and configuration. Community groups and residents squabbled over whether the old bridge should be renovated, replaced on the existing alignment or built farther north.
At its narrowest point, the new bridge may have only 24 feet of width for vehicles, with one lane in each direction -- the same as the current bridge. However, the new bridge would have more than double that width for bicycles and pedestrians.
A citizen task force spent two years coming up with that solution, in a recommendation Multnomah County Chairman Ted Wheeler called "tremendous work."
The biggest concern with the preferred option was the need to eliminate five condominium units on the east shore of the Willamette River. But all alternatives laid out in a recent environmental study would displace some homes and businesses. The bridge is in a highly developed area and was built over and through a pre-existing office building.
"The reality is that under any plan that we adopt ... we'll displace both residences and businesses," Wheeler said. "That is not something I relish doing. The commitment we have to make to the community is that we'll do everything we can to mitigate the impact on people who'll be displaced."
Serving more than 30,000 cars a day, the Sellwood is the busiest two-lane bridge in the state and the county's highest-priority transportation project.
Policy Advisory Group will vote today
Wheeler, chairman of the 11-member Policy Advisory Group that must approve the plan, said he expects a decision today. The group raised no major objections to the plan outlined by the citizen task force last week.
Catherine Ciarlo, transportation director for Portland Mayor Sam Adams' office, said the mayor supports the task force's recommendation.
"We have heard pretty strongly from the community and stakeholders," Ciarlo said. "A lot of the pieces have fallen into place."
Wheeler would not comment on how he would vote, but along with Adams, four others generally favor the recommendation.
As with many transportation projects, planning has proceeded even though officials don't have the money to pay for the final design or construction.
Wheeler said local cities and counties could be expected to pay $100 million or more.
TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen said one good thing about the task force's proposal is its ability to be built in phases. Half could be built south of the old bridge, for example, giving motorists a safe new crossing. Then when more money becomes available, crews could replace the old bridge with the northern half of the new bridge, he said.
As recently as three months ago, there was no agreement on anything about the Sellwood Bridge -- except that it needed to be replaced and fast. Rumors of its demise circulated for years, but outcry about the bridge became acute in 2004 when the county, observing cracks and sags, placed a weight restriction that banned buses and trucks.
For more than a decade, the Sellwood neighborhood had pushed for Portland, the county, which owns the bridge, and Metro to endorse the Tacoma Main Street Plan. The Tacoma plan calls for the region to use only two through-traffic lanes on the bridge, which is part of Southeast Tacoma Street.
The logic? Why build more than two lanes on a bridge when it leads to two-lane streets on either side. Both would likely become bottlenecks.
Five proposals considered
So when the county wrote an environmental impact statement last year, it evaluated five alternatives -- A through E -- with no more than two lanes for through traffic.
A December public hearing showed a community divided. Dozens of residents of the Riverpark Condominiums and Sellwood Harbor Condominiums supported Alternative E, which would have built a new bridge to the north. But it would have displaced a 48,000-square-foot office building and come close to a historic church building.
Some residents favored a version of Alternative D, the plan that officials are likely to approve today. It creates a new bridge on the existing alignment but doesn't require closing of the bridge for construction.
Jim Larpenteur, who lives in one of the Sellwood Harbor condos that would be removed by the project, said the neighborhood unfairly tarred the E alignment.
"Those who are opposed to the E alignment will pick whatever argument they can make to attack it," Larpenteur said. "I'm disappointed in the neighborhood for taking the position. I kind of feel like I can't fight this."
In coming weeks, Multnomah and Clackamas county boards, the Portland City Council and the Metro Council are all expected to vote on a bridge plan, but Wheeler said he expects them to abide by today's vote.
-- Dylan Rivera;
dylanrivera@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/i...lwood_bri.html